Looking for info and inspiration!

 Thank you so much for sharing your story, it sounds like the sleeve has been great for you! I am excited to start my journey again! It is looking like the sleeve is the surgery for me!

I'm actually almost 10 months out at this point, and very happy with my surgical choice. I would and have already recommended the procedure to good friends.

Surgery was a little unusual from what most other people have reported. My sleeve was actually pretty tight compared to a lot of them, and I ended up having to stay inpatient for 4 days, because my surgeon wouldn't let me go home until I could at least keep water down without throwing it back up.

It took me about 6 weeks to work up to anything heavier than a scrambled egg beater or low-fat cottage cheese.  Food tolerances have progressed steadily but slowly. Fat bothers me much more than sugar: if it's got more than about 8g of fat in a serving, there's a good chance it will make me extremely nauseous. I can't tolerate bread at all and never eat it. About the only prominent carb I have is an occasional low-fat graham cracker with PB for a treat or a cup of Maxwell house international coffee (love the french vanilla with Raspberry extract...yum!). For capacity reasons, everything else I eat is "all protein, all the time". (Lots of chicken or tuna salad with egg whites, 96/4 ground beef with diced onion and McCormick's taco or burrito seasoning packet, etc.)

Intake is about 700-850 calories per day, usually around 15-20g of fat and around 80g of protein at this point.

As someone else mentioned, however, the surgery did something for me that I wasn't expecting.....my insurance required 6 months of dietitian classes prior to surgery, and I spent that time trying to "retrain" myself in the mental department. It was unsuccessful, though, as I craved the same greasy, fried and sugar-laden foods in mass quantity, all the way up to the day of the operation. I was terrified that immediately after I healed, I would be right back to my old ways again. After all, I knew from plenty of experience that I didn't have to be hungry to want to eat (and eat, and eat...)

From the day that I woke up, though, the massive, almost overwhelming food cravings have been completely gone and I couldn't tell you why for the life of me. I just look at it as a blessing and go on.

In my experience, the loss is very rapid for the first 6 months, then starts to slow down significantly, which matches what my surgeon told me to expect. Even with the challenges at the beginning of this process, I definitely feel like it was the best decision I've ever made. Picking a surgery is such a personal choice, and everyone is different in what will work best for them. Whichever option you pick, good luck with it and I wish you the best!

Hi! I would say if your band was working out for you, weight loss wise, than the sleeve is a great option for a revision. My surgery was short, recovery easy (I had nausea and headaches from a spinal block that I should have skipped!).. I went from liquids to soft foods to regular food in a month, I can and do eat anything I want, I reached goal in 6 months and have been there ever since. I am 2 years and 7 months out and I still love my sleeve. I actually did recommend it to my best friend, and she has been happily sleeved for over a year now! LOL..

I am an open book, so feel free to ask anything you are wondering about!

ETA: I do not work, but was back to full time school and taking care of my kids at about 10 days..