Colleen_SJ

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I had my surgery on Monday morning, March 30th. Everything has been going just as it should so far, I feel very lucky indeed! I was kept in the hospital until Thursday morning, where I got such great care from the nurses, etc. The first 24 hours or so after surgery are no walk in the park, but things improve quite quickly and steadily. By 48 hours after I was pretty much feeling like myself again. I only needed the Gravol and pain medication for the first two days - on day three I didn't need it any more! The four hour drive home on the fourth day (yesterday) was not difficult either, until I got out of the car, and then I was quite sore, certainly moreso than when I left the hospital. In hindsight it might have been helpful to have taken some pain medication before we set out on the drive, but I didn't feel I needed it. I did have to take some pain medication after I got home and again last night to help me get comfortable in bed and sleep. But really it was only the level of pain that can be handled using Tylenol, the prescription for Dilaudid that they gave me seemed unnecessary. But I missed the hospital bed that you could raise yourself up to a sitting position- getting out of bed and turning over in bed was quite difficult last night. But just as everything else has improved steadily, I expect it will be a little easier tonight.

As far as eating goes I have been able to progress easily there as well. I'm still having trouble really knowing if I am full or not, however. I find it hard to tell if any discomfort I feel while eating is really because I'm full or not, since I'm taking in only a couple of ounces of full liquids at a time, and not nearly the full amount suggested I should be getting in the guidebook from the dietician. But I stop when I think I MIGHT be full, rather than trying to eat the full 4-6 oz the booklet says I should be having.

Ok so apparently I am supposed to make blog posts LOL so I will add a bit of background info in case anyone actually visits.

I was put on the waiting list for Dr. Savoie six years ago, in January of 2009. I knew at the time that the waiting list was several years long, and I was ever-hopeful that I could lose weight and get in shape without it, but I wanted to have the option down the road. In the meantime I kind of put it out of my mind and continued in fits and starts to try to do it on my own.

In 2011-12 I got my act together and lost almost 70lbs by eating super-healthy and exercising a LOT - I hired a personal trainer and was getting really quite fit. However I hit a plateau at 70 lbs (about half of my excess weight) after having to cut back the personal training to once every two weeks due to the cost, and eventually had to give up the personal training sessions entirely. (I HIGHLY recommend a personal trainer to anyone who can afford it - I found an absolutely wonderful trainer who I would recommend highly to anyone in this area, and if money was no option I never would have cut back on sessions. She is one of those people that you know came into your life for a reason, and although I can no longer employ her I am still inspired by her and count her among my friends.)

After giving up my training sessions my motivation floundered and over the course of 2013-2014 I stopped exercising, picked up bad eating habits again, and put about 50 of the 70 lbs back on. However, it was the first time that I managed to rein myself in and get back on track before actually putting ALL the weight back on plus more, which has been my pattern of yo-yo dieting for my entire adult life. I started out on my weight rollercoaster at about 150 lbs when I graduated from high school and yo-yo dieted my way up to over 300 lbs over the subsequent 20 years. I figure that if you add up all my weight loss attempts I've probably lost over 300 lbs altogether! SO discouraging and frustrating, especially when people assume you are just lazy and gluttonous. (OK so at times I have been both of those things, but other times the very opposite. I am like the "Jekyll and Hyde" of eaters - when I'm good I'm very good, and when I'm bad I'm very bad!  I have worked very hard over the years to be healthy, but being my own worst enemy when it comes to my weight, in the end you would never know how hard I have worked by looking at the end result (so far).

Over the years and all these attempts I have learned a few things about myself and about healthy eating that I hope will help me to reach and maintain a healthy weight after surgery. I am a realist and approach most things with a healthy skepticism based on experience, but there are reasons that I believe the "sleeve" is an important part of the puzzle for me and that I can be successful now with the help of this tool. I will write more about this later, have to get back to work!