Surgery fast approaching

 HI I have started this journey almost a year ago. I found this site and than dropped it for a while but, after many battles, jumping many hoops, and running the heck out of the mazed course I have finally did it! I got a surgery date. Scary thing though I was scheduled for the 25th of October but all fo a sudden moved up to the 11th which means had to start my liquids immediately. Thank God I had already started somewhat as I was already on boost for breakfast and lunch only eating dinner and nothing after 7 pm. But the fear of what to expect, immediately after surgery, a day after surgery to a week after surgery etc. Has got me so nervous I thought I would immediately return to this site for the help I know I could get from all that have already gone through it. Thanks for all that reply.

Congrats on moving up the date. The same thing happened to me and it turned out fantastic. I didn't have time to freak out. so I sat back and enjoyed the journey.

The day of surgery, afterwards, is much of a blurr..Thank goodness for drugs. The second day was the hardest for me. Not that it was hard, I expected it to be 100% back to normal, but it was not. I was tired and yucky. The third and all the days after were fantastic. never took any drugs after the second day...

Walk, sip, rest and repeat..  

So far, for me, the worst of it was that pre-op diet.  Post-op the worst for me was the after effects of the cathiter.  Like urinating shards of glass.  The first few days you are pretty heavily medicated and coming off of the anesitesia.   The key is to keep sipping the fluids down and and get your protien in and walk.   I recovered pretty quick and was back to work in six days.  At three weeks, my incisions are all closed up and tomorrow I should be cleared for exercise and Phase III diet.  I do tend to get sleepy and need a nap in the afternoon still but it that seems to be getting later and later in the day.

My second day home from the hospital I felt horrible and my conclussion was I did not get enough fluids and protien in.  The next day, I told my wife and kids, my only purpose in life is to get my protiens and fluid in and NOTHING was going to interfere with that.  I could not beleive how much better I felt at the end of that next day.  After a while, your able to get more fluids down in a shorter time.  Once that happens, you can start doing more stuff.  I found if I got busy, it was easy to miss drinking and meals, then you start to feel crappy.

Since your goal intially is healing, don't limit your carbs (My NUT's advice which I think is sound), the energy is good and the carbs will sharpen your mind since your not forcing your body to convert to ketosis while you are healing and recovering.  I also found the clear liquid protiens like IsoPure and Proti-diet very helpful in the first week.  Thin clear liquids is a lot easier to swallow then the thicker protien shakes.  Also room tempature water,  for some reason, cold water was/is really hard on my new little tummy.

You will do fine, just plan for two weeks off work, sip, walk, sleep, protien and you will do fine.

I didn't find this a paticularly painful experinece, just that d@mn cathiter

 Thanks for the helpful information. I was told by my surgeons office that I was going to be on a clear liquid diet for a MONTH after my surgery but I have noticed ppl saying that they are on soft foods 3 weeks out so how true is it that a month is the magical number or is it depending on my recovery rate? 5 more days til surgery and counting down.

I had my surgery last Monday, and I will say that my recovery was not as short on the pain as some other people describe.  I'm writing this not to scare you, but so that you won't be discouraged if you experience pain in the week afterwards.  It is manageable pain.  Even right out of surgery, it was manageable with the pain meds I got.  I had a hiatal hernia repair at the same time as my WLS, so that probably added to my pain and recovery as well.  I had a hard time moving around, mostly getting up and down out of the bed and chairs.  I am still sore, but haven't felt the need to use pain meds the last couple of days.

One thing to know is that every day is a little better.  For me, the day right after surgery was the worst by far.  Even then, I was able to get out of bed every hour to walk five minutes...so I couldn't have been THAT bad, you know?  Just VERY uncomfortable and frustrated about not being able to move around well without pain.

Don't be surprised if you have a moment, in that post-op period, where you are like "WTH did I do to myself?"  or are very sad that you had to have surgery and restrict your eating in such an extreme way because you couldn't lose the weight "on your own."  Its totally normal to go through those feelings.  My husband encouraged me at that time by pointing out that I was taking control of the problem, that I was smart for choosing a solution with proven results (unlike diet and exercise alone) and I was gonna feel so good when the lbs started coming off.

I was only on clear liquids the day before surgery, was NPO (nothing by mouth) for two days afterwards, and was on full liquids - and will be on full liquids for another week.  After that I have two weeks of purees before transitioning into soft foods.  You will see that surgeons all have different ideas about how to best heal the new sleeve.  Many switch patients to soft foods much more quickly than your or my surgeon.  It is important to follow your surgeon's plan.

So all of this to say that although you might not be pain free as soon as you want or as soon as other people (although I hope you are), and it is not all sunshine and roses, it is nothing you can't handle!  And it will be worth it!  We'll be making room for you on the loser's bench very soon!