After VSG
My surgery was scheduled for September, but got bumped up to August 17. I'm scared of how things will be after surgery, wonder if I will fail to lose weight, and if the pain is to much. I'm looking forward to surgery, but cant seem to shake this anxiety of what's going to happen after. My doctor reassured me that the progress and changes I've made will help in my recovery. I used to drink pop daily and now I dont drink any and I cut down on carbs. Any advice or can anyone relate to how I'm feeling?
just so you know, pain is all across the board, but most people have little to no pain with these surgeries. I was surprised how little pain I had. I didn't even bother to take the pain meds I was sent home with when I left the hospital. And you WILL have pain meds, so even if you're one of the unfortunately ones who has a lot of pain, it should be very manageable with the meds.
as far as losing weight, if you follow your clinic's guidelines, you WILL lose weight.
Yes I can relate. I just got the surgery on Thursday the 18th. I was nervous about the pain but it hasn't been too bad. The gas pain was uncomfortable but as soon as I walked it got way better, the only thing really bothering me is the site where they took out my stomach. It feels like a soreness as if you did a ton of sit-ups. As far as fear of failing, I've had that too on and off but like they said I'm the comment above, if you follow your doctor's instruction you will loose! You've got this!
I had a really easy recovery. I didn't truly have pain, although for the first 6 hours I was uncomfortable and feeling sorry for myself. My biggest fear was nausea, but I only had one very brief wave of nausea. I've had much worse periods!
Tip: The sooner you get up and walk, the better you will feel.
One other bit of advice is that it's totally normal to experience "buyer's remorse" after surgery. Just hang on and the feeling will pass.
The psychology of this all is fascinating. Even as I was losing 10+ pounds a month for several months, I was constantly convincing myself I was done losing weight, or that I was screwing up, etc. The weight comes off so fast right away after surgery than I ended up getting to the point where I felt a lot of anxiety if I went a week without losing. It's normal for all of us to feel we're screwing up, just because we've never had great long-term success with weight loss.
But more on the psychology of it all, I definitely had a negative mentality about it all. When I initially went in to start my program for WLS, I told them my goal was to be under 200 pounds. If I could see a 1 on that scale, I felt I would be happy at 199.9 for the rest of my life.
Well, I hit the 200 pound mark just 27 weeks after surgery. And as far as the pop thing goes, I used to drink at least 3 liters of diet soda per day. I'm just over 8 months out and I haven't had a single drop of soda since. It's possible to stick with changes (I found surgery to be a "reset" of sorts), it's even possible for many of us to not only get out of the obese category, but also get out of the overweight category into the normal category. (All in terms of BMI, and as many others will attest to, BMI isn't a great measure but it's what doctors here in the USA often use)
