3 Weeks Revision Surgery Update

Pretty much recovered from revision surgery and feel as if nothing has happened.

On the weight-loss front things are happening! I almost forgot what losing weight feels like. I've lost 14.5 lbs since surgery and I am extremely happy.

I am still on a full liquid diet and have no idea what the sleeve actually feels like when it comes to eating food. Liquids are going down fine and I have not been "stuck" or felt any discomfort of any kind. Everything feels pretty normal.

The most amazing things that have happened since sleeve surgery:

• Food and the smell of food disgust me.
• Sweetness disgusts me even more and I have to force myself to drink the protein shakes. This already started in the hospital. I wish they would make them in neutral flavors.
• I do not like soups. I made a chicken broth the other day and all I could think of was chicken farm smell. There is no way I will drink any chicken broth any time soon. Same applies to Broccoli soup, split pea soup or tomato soup. 
• I have no hunger. Not even the slightest feeling of hunger. I have to force myself to drink 3 protein shakes (30g protein each) a day. I had to set-up an alarm in my cellphone as a reminder to drink/eat because I just don't feel it.
• I do not like the taste of Cappuccino any longer (and I was a HUGE addict prior to surgery) I can only drink regular coffee with coffeemate powder (and I never liked coffeemate, go figure)

The funniest thing is that I have lost 46% of my excess weight within 3 weeks. My goal is 155 lbs and I "only" need to lose another 17 lbs. However, I am already thinking of lowering my goal weight.

So far, so good... The liquid diet is getting kind of difficult and I am craving chewing real food. I wish I could have some tuna salad or some soft Avocado. I am also excited to see what the sleeve will feel like but my surgeon likes me to be on liquids for 4 weeks. 1 week and 1 day to go! :-)

Happy Memorial weekend to all of you. 

Bye-Bye Mr. Lap-band... Hello Mr. Sleeve, Revision Surgery is done!

Hi Everyone,

I had my surgery last Friday and I am now officially lap-band free but sleeved.

This time I took a very different approach, I completely ignored that I was about to have surgery, didn't read any blogs, forums or articles the weeks prior to surgery and just let it happen. And I am glad I did.

I was very brave. We arrived at the hospital at 8 AM and everything went pretty fast. Before I knew it all the pre-op stuff was in progress, they put in the IV, my surgeon arrived, he talked to me for a few minutes and I was pushed in the operating room. Surgery started at 10 AM. Inside the operating room was a whole lot of activity going on and I only remember saying "Wow, now I am really getting kind of nervous" and immediately the anesthesiologist put some liquid in the IV and said: "This will help you to relax" and gone I was.

The surgery was kind of long... It took almost 4 hours :-( When I woke up in the recovery area I felt really bad. My mouth was sooo dry and I had the worst nausea ever. They kept me there for some time and brought me to my room many hours later.

The first day/night was horrible. The nausea meds didn't help at all... and since I couldn't pee they ultrasound-ed my bladder throughout the night. This was actually the weirdest feeling ever. I wanted to pee but whatever you normally do to release pee didn't work. I had no control over it.

The daytime-shift nurse really helped me to resolve this on Tuesday. She was the sweetest and most caring nurse I have ever met in my life. Every time I peed she got all excited and gave me high-five. Luckily I didn't need a catheter!

There was no way that I could have gone home after only one night in the hospital. I ended up staying there for 3 nights. The entire nausea thing took some time to resolve and I was very weak for the first 2 days. I slept most of the time and didn't even have the energy to hold a conversation or to drink my protein shakes. I only felt utter gratefulness for these wonderful nurses that cared for me <3.

It got better every day and on Monday I felt really confident that I could handle all of it at home.

On a great note...up to today I never experienced any pain inside of me or at the incisions. It's more like discomfort and when I move a certain way I do feel sore, but no pain. In the hospital I took some painkillers because they seemed to help with the nausea, but very small doses.

My incisions look great. My surgeon used the same incisions that I had from the lap-band surgery and I do not even feel them. I remember that after lap-band surgery the port area was sore for weeks, not so with the sleeve surgery. I am totally amazed how neat the incisions look and how little pain I had through all of this.

I am really excited now... Unfortunately my scale hasn't been my friend prior to surgery. In the hospital I weighed in at 186.5 and that's 20 lbs more than my lowest lap-band weight :-(

Finally I am losing again and I totally missed that. I've lost 9.8 lbs within one week :-)))))

Honestly, I never expected to lose that much with my low starting weight (did I really just write that?)

Can't wait to update my ticker <3 It's really exciting!

I hope all of you are well and life treats you good in lap-band or sleeve land!

Love & Hugs,

S.