Category: vsg

Libby was out of surgery yesterday afternoon and was just like I was, in pain, sleepy and dozing on and off all afternoon. Also like me, she had the ‘vomit’ attempt but nothing comes up, and 5 holes with no drain.

My miracle recovery is now less than perfect. I was yet to vomit at all post hospital but the other day (while on the snowy ride ). I was really unsure as to weather or not to do it but decided to anyway. It was at a restaurant on the saturday night when I had an issue. I had a little bit of chicken, some red wine, about 4 chips and some pumpkin and it was either the wrong food or too much because one bite I was feeling fine, the next really needing to vomit. I sat there for a while and decided I needed to get rid of this feeling. I went to the toiler to see if I could throw up and on seeing the state of the toilets, it was no longer an if.

Then again this morning, I had a sip of ginger beer (I love ginger beer) that I had let go flat overnight. I hadn’t had anything at all so far today (apart from vitamins and Nexian) and it all came back up. I’ve done this before with no problems (only at night though) so its a little strange.

I hope this doesn’t start a new trend.

Anyway, I’ve now lost 15.7kg and am finding it quite easy to live with (unless I eat the wrong stuff)

I have an appointment for wednesday afternoon with the surgeon and will ask about the vomiting. He will probably just tell me its too soon and to slow down a bit.

I am also starting to not feel hungry (some people are a little slow, like me) so thats a good sign. Aparently the ghrelin can take a while to get out of your system.

 

Its now two weeks out and everything is great. I’m losing weight, not really having to try. I’m generally not hungry apart from if I leave meal times late and when that happens, a normal meal will make me feel satiated without any lingering hunger (which used to happen)

A meal consists of a piece of bread with something on it, or a glass of skim milk (which I actually like now) or anything similar size.

It takes me about 30 mins to have a piece of toast or half a sandwich. Twice now I’ve been stuck at shopping centres and needed to eat. Its very strange to only get something really tiny and not be able to finish it. Its even stranger to be satisfied with that.

Anyway, I’ve now lost 14.3kg and am still going. The only trouble I have is trying to get enough water to drink. I think I’m dehydrated most of the time.

So, in summary, its been a very good choice and I’m happy. Now, if Libby gets through hers as well, we will be happy and thinner together :-)

 

Misc cut-and-paste from an online group I post to. Kept here mainly for my benefit only…

Its now almost 12 days since surgery.

Everything I read said you can move on once you tolerate food so I’ve
been ‘testing’ things as I go. I’m now on ‘normal’ food and as my job
involves a lot of lunch meetings etc, I’ve eaten out a number of times.

Theres one place we go to quite a bit and i just ask for an egg on
toast and normally finish about 80% of it. I ate too much a few times
and it just hurts and then I tend to get the hiccups.

I can easily drink a 250ml up’n’go for breakfast so I’m guessing the
VSG turned out to be that big but when I eat solid food, it seems much
smaller. Maybe my pyloric sphincter muscle is lazy and letting liquids
through too easily.

I also get distinct head hunger and can defiately still feel stomach
hunger as well. When I was in a shooping centre on thursday night, I
was really starving. I looked for decent food and the best i could
find was a chinese takeaway. I had a $8 plate, only put a few things
on it (much to the amusement of the woman behind the counter as
everyone else piles them really high) and only ate about half of that
(probably about 1/2 cup of food) before I was really full.

I still don’t seem able to space drinking/eating 30 mins apart so that
seems to severly limit how much food I can get in.

I’m also going away for a weekend next weekend (on the snowy
motorcycle ride) so that involves many hours of riding and eating what
we can find. Ill take some optifast shakes and protein bars but i
think i should be able to work it out easily. The only issue is if we
all stop for lunch, I take about 30-40 mins to eat what I get so if
others are in a hurry, ill probably end up just having liquid meals.
Maybe I should take some up’n’go’s or get some of the service station
sustagen drinks etc.

Anyway, I’m doing quite well i think. I haven’t had salad yet (or
untoasted bread) but only because I haven’t wanted it yet.

So in summary, I had a good optifast trip (although I complained at
the time), really good surgery and a quick recovery onto normal foods.
I can’t imagine anything going better really.

I gave in one night and had some chocolate (haloween night) but after
a brief depression about how weak I am, I think i’m over it and
haven’t done anything like that again.

Misc cut-and-paste from an online group I post to. Kept here mainly for my benefit only…

I do get a little pain if i eat too much in
a single swallow. The operation pain is mostly gone. There is only a
little pain at the wound sites but they are healing really well and
being male, once the hair grows back in you won’t be able to see them :-)

Bending over isn’t a problem for me, strangely enough, it was a
problem before but i’ve lost 14kgs now (in a month) and its easier to
bend over.

Today I was out again and went to a service station, got a sandwich
and thought I would be able to eat it all (I also got a drink but was
going to wait 30 mins after eating to have some). Anyway, my first
time on untoasted bread worked fine and I ate 1/2 the sandwich and was
quite satisfied. If someone had told me that weeks ago theres no way i
could believe it. I’ve just had a small apple now for an afternoon
snack (it took about 45 mins to eat) and I’m full again.

Now the only stumbling block is salad and I might try one tonight. Its
only hard to make food when there such little quantities. I also
haven’t had enough protein or my liquid vitamin today so thats all
gotta happen too. maybe a salad will have to wait till tomorrow.

Misc cut-and-paste from an online group I post to. Kept here mainly for my benefit only…

I do seem to get the ‘I need to burp’ feeling while eating all the time. You know the feeling
when you feel a little bloated and then it up or move and you get the
gurgling feeling, thats what I get when eating and for a while after.
I guess when my stomach was larger it would just accumulate until
later but now it seems to just want to burp up.

I guess its better than vomiting though. the only vomits I’ve had were
2 I had in hospital (1 on day 1 and 1 on day 2) and nothing came up. I
was very worried a the time about tearing staples but have since
learnt that the staples are pretty hard to damage. The staple gun they
use puts 3 rows on each site. Dr T said it costs about $350 per time
they fire the stapler. On the video I saw, they fired it 5 times !