2 weeks post-op

Hello Everyone My name is Mariam and i am from Toronto. I am 24 yrs old and have struggled with obesity almost my whole life. I just had my open RNY on July 10th, 2006 and doing fine. I am glad to see there is a forum off ppl around my age who have done this surgery, cuase i think as 20 year olds our experiences with this surgery is different then those that are older than us. For the past couple of weeks i have been on an emotional roller coaster, one day i am so happy that i did the surgery and other days i regret it and feel like i will never be able to eat the foods i like ever again. I just wanted to get others experiences on this. Also, what did this surgery do to your social life? I know that most of the time i go out with friends it involves food, either going to a bar, or coffee shop or some restaurant. How can i keep doing these things? Especially cause we are all students, and don't have much money, so usually when we want to grab something to eat it is at some fast food place. What should i do in that case? I just feel like i am going to miss out on being with friends cause they will keep going out to eat and i won't be able to join them ever again. My friends all know about my situation, but i can't expect them all to change their lifestyles just because of me. Please let me know about your experiences, thank you. Mariam

You can keep going out and doing things after surgery. It will be hard when you are on restricted food phases to eat out because you have to be careful. Also you wont want to try anything new when out in case it doesnt agree. I am 5 weeks out and still go out with my friends to different places. I stick to places I know the menu at and know before going what I could eat. You can still go to fast food places too - my NUT reccomended the chicken salad at ChickFila. Just a matter of making better decisions about what you eat and not making it a habit. If your weakness is mcdonalds you may not want to go there again. You will find that when food isnt your main focus you can start to find other things to do. Your friends dont have to change their lifestyle but because of your lifestyle change you can help them experience new things!! As for "never being able to eat the foods I like ever again" this is completely untrue. Granted you may have food intolerances that may not allow you to eat certain foods again but for the most part there isnt anything banned for life. Some surgeons will say certain things are banned that others will say is ok. Its all a matter of you changing your eating habits and being healther. So you LOOOVE pumpkin pie... well before you ate a half a pie... a whole pie whatever. Now post-op you can have a little piece... you will learn to enjoy things more when you can only have a little bit. Then you will come to find a little bit will satisify you just as much as a huge amount. All the emotions you are feeling now are normal - its hard to go thru such a huge change at once. Also if you use to deal with things in your life by eating and thats now been taken away it can be tough to deal with. Hopefully this will help you out some!

Hi Miriam, I'm new to this board but read your post and can totally identify. I'm 2 weeks post-op myself and though I'm a few years older (27) and out of college), I can still identify. First of all, I haven't felt like going out at all these last 2 weeks. I feel it will be another 2 weeks before I feel up to "socializing" anyhow. It's fine with me, though. I did go out to lunch the other day and I brought my sf jello pudding with me and it turned out to be fine. Just wait a while. We'll get through it. In another month or so, we'll be able to go out to different places. So many places have so much variety now. be creative. If you can only tolerate chicken... order a chicken sandwich, no mayo, no bread, no veggies, whatever works for you. If you can only eat refried beans, get a bean burrito from Taco Bell and ask for a spoon. There's a lot of variety out there and it shouldn't cramp your lifestyle at all. Just think "outside the box." If your friends know about the situation, you are halfway there, and they'll be supportive.