RNY Advice

So I'm a fresh 20 year old who decided to have surgery  a while ago and now I have my surgery date on November 21.  I'm scared for complications and many other things. How did your surgery go? Even being younger will I have lose saggy skin? What should I do to prepare in the next week and a half before surgery. How did you deal with hunger pains pre-op? How did you deal with pain? How long did pain last? So on and so forth... looking for people around my age (not 40 and up) who had this done for advice. Did your energy level increase? Looking for advice, even stories are great to hear. Thanks -Allie

OMG i have no idea about all this all i know is if its scary to go under...YIKES

 Haha, I'm not scared about going under. I'm scared about taking care of myself before and after. I've been unhealthy my whole life, being healthy and happy will be a new change to me. I feel like a child whose just learning how to feed themselves for the first time or a new mother whose just getting a new fragile baby for the first time. It's scary and new to me. Surgery itself I have no fear. 

 i had my surgery last year at 24 (lap rny) and it went very smoothly. follow your surgeon's pre-op directions, luckily i didn't have any restrictions or pre-op diet until the saturday night before my monday surgery, and that was just for the bowel cleanse. the pain wasn't too bad, i made that pain pump by best friend the first two days in the hospital before they took it away. then i only took the pills when i needed them which was maybe once every other day, and before bed every night. i did sleep on a recliner until about a week post op which helped a lot. but after about a week/week and a half i was ready to go out and do things. surgery was 9/27/10 and i'm down 101 lbs (about 74% excess weight). i'd like to lose another 20-30 though. i have a ton of saggy skin that i'm super conscious about but other people say they hardly notice (who knows if they are just being nice or telling the truth)

 That makes me feel soooo much better. Everyone has stressed the importance of diet before the surgery and I have yet to come across anyone who hasn't had to do a pre-op diet weeks before. I've heard of people doing medifast and all sorts of things. It makes me feel so much better that you had to do what I'm doing now. (Thus nothing.) I guess I'm just being soooo cautious with everything because I want to be able to recover quickly so I can be with my family on Thanksgiving and not have to worry about an open surgery. I'm just being a nervous pervous a week before surgery.  BTW CONGRATS on your weight loss!!! That's insane! 

 i was totally nervous too. up until the morning of surgery (really i think i was too tired to be nervous at that point, i had to do a bowel cleanse the day before and spent most of the day and night on the toilet, tons of fun lol). you'll probably be pretty tired on thanksgiving, but i'm sure you'll get to spend some time with your family. what day do you go home? my surgery was monday and i went home thursday, i slept most of the day but i also had a bad day the day before. i have awful veins and my iv vein collapsed (i'm surprised it lasted that long to be honest) and then they couldn't get a vein to stay so they ended up leaving me with no iv since i was getting fluids in on my own and leaving the next day anyway but i was still probably pretty dehydrated.

 Yes, I have to do a bowel cleanse too... miralax/gatorade the day before and can't eat anything either. I should be there 2 days if everything goes as planned. So hopefully I go home the night before or morning of thanksgiving. I'm hoping, I'll be tuckered out too the morning of surgery. I'm sure I will be nervous and up all night before. So that's kinda good. That stinks though that you had a vein collapse. I'm worried about dehydration too, that seems to be a common reaccurance from what I've heard. 

 I had to do a three week preop diet of four Optifast shakes a day and 2 cups of veggies (lettuce, cucumber and green pepper). Because I had to do the shakes, I was only hungry for the first few days. My body was used to taking in a huge amount of calories and all of a sudden it had 900 to last the day. It took it sometime to figure out that it wasn't starving and had enough, just not as much as it was used to and then the hunger subsided. My surgery was lap RNY and during the surgery the staple gun miss fired and my doctor decided to hand sew a portion of my pouch to ensure that nothing was out of place and as a precaution I had drains put it. They pain was really bad the first few days but managable if you just tell the doctors and nurses you need something, they are really great about keeping you in check. I was told that on a pain scale of 1-10, I should let them know I needed something when I got to about a 4 (so a little uncomfortable) because by the time they give you something and it kicks in, your pain has probably elevated to a 5 or a 6. Because I had drains, I was uncomfortable for longer than most, but again, they gave me meds when I needed it. At home, it's a big adjustment learning to take everything in. Don't worry the first little while if all you can eat is 2 tbsps of something at each meal, you're swollen and your recovering and it gets better. The most important thing is to make sure you are sipping constantly because you can easily become dehydrated. Now that I'm 4 months out, I'm really pleased with my surgery and still adjusting but everyday becomes more easier and more routine like. I do have more energy now and find that even simple things have become simpler because I don't have the extra weight anymore (like walking around).

All the best to you! 


I love my RNY!
 

Hi, I haven't posted here in quite some time. I will be 3 years out next month, and I had surgery when I was 22.

In response to your question about complications, there is no way to tell. It's an unnerving response, but it certainly is the truth. Everyone is different and reacts differently to the physical strain of surgery and then the subsequent recovery process, and life changes. 

You shouldn't really have pre-op hunger pains, it's really something that's mental. Pain following surgery however is again something that varies by individual. I distinctly remember not liking the 'woozy' feeling of pain pills, but was advised by the nurses to continue taking pain meds because my blood pressure kept rising as a response to the pain I was feeling.

Over time (following your doctors post-op instructions) your energy will increase. But an important thing to keep in mind is to be patient and not push yourself too hard.

ETA: Saggy skin is inevitable. Either you learn to live with it, or have surgery to remove it.