1st post - sleeved on 5/12!

Good morning fellow sleevers! I have been lurking on this board for months,  soaking up all the information and advice while jumping through all the insurance hoops for my surgery.  I was just sleeved this past Monday 5/12,  and thought I should finally stop lurking and post.  I was terrified going into surgery,  as I have never had a procedure that required an overnight hospital stay before, but it was really a very good experience,  so I want to reassure anyone else who is nervous that you can do this!  I do still have some soreness but it is well managed with the painkillers they gave me (roxicet). My surgeon mentioned that he oversewed a part of my staple line that he wanted to reinforce so my sleeve is a bit tighter than his norm, so I might experience some nausea at first.  I did have nausea the 1st 2 days in the hospital which required medication,  I also experienced the referred gas pain in my shoulders,  but I walked,  walked,  walked and it was able to stay managed. 

I was released on Wednesday afternoon, after a 2 night hospital stay.  Yesterday I was cleared to add protein shakes to the clear liquid diet I had been on since surgery, and I was able to get those down without issue.  The only issue I have had since surgery is that I had not had a bowel movement since before surgery.  I didn't really realize I should have had one,  being that I'm not ingesting any solid food,  but the nurse who called me yesterday to check in wanted me to take some milk of magnesia.  Well boy does that stuff work - a little too well! The bottle said the adult dose was 2-4 tbsp, clearly I should have started at 2 and worked my way up if needed,  because I took the 4 and I have been going and going!  Sorry for the tmi, but I got some good knowledge from people's tmi posts, so I wanted to put it out there in case anyone else was having an issue. 

Anyway,  overall the surgery and recovery have been mostly uneventful and a good experience,  so anyone who is pre-op and nervous,  please know I would do it again in a heartbeat!  I've been staying off the scale for fear of gain from the iv fluids,  but I expect I will cave in and weigh this weekend.  My 1st follow up appointment is this Tuesday,  at which point I should be able to begin adding in purees.  Yum!

Thanks to all the vsg vets for all your posts,  I've gotten some great info lurking on here these past few months!  Also,  I think I've seen a few posts from others who were sleeved this past week as well, I would love to hear from anyone else around the same point as me!

Hope there is room for me on the loser's bench!  :-)

Oh, I haven't figured out tickers and signatures yet,  but for those who are interested, I am a 36yo female, my HW was 286, my SW was 273, and I am 5'10.5" I'll update with my current weight once I get on the scale.  I'm not positive on a goal weight, I am thinking of starting with 175 and then going lower from there if needs be.  My surgeon's office didn't give me a target weight goal yet.

The goals set for me from the center for the lap band was 210 (obese) and when I was sleeved it was 185 (overweight.)    My goal was to just get under 200 and stay there.  Than I changes it to the centers goal of 185. After I met that I set a goal of 170-175 which is what I had felt good at with a prior weight loss.(still overweight.) My current goal is 155 (normal)I have been hanging 162-167 for 8 months now, 20 below the center and 98% EWL.

I set lots of goals!  I love goals.  :)  Here they are:

(3/20/14) 291 - Extremely Obese
(4/25/14) 271 - 25% EWL
(4/29/14) 269 - Fifty Lost
(5/17/2014) 260 - Driver's License Weight
233 - Obese
229 - 50% EWL
219 - One Hundred Lost/Facebook Announcement Day
199 - "Onederland"
187 - 75% EWL
180 - Age 18
174 - Overweight/Surgeon's Goal
169 - One Hundred Fifty Lost
157 - Half the person I used to be
145 - Normal

ULTIMATE GOAL - 127 pounds, 22.5% body fat (Normal BMI range is 145-109)
Height - 5'4"

Hi - I just got sleeved on Wednesday, the 14th.  I'm doing fine too.  I have discomfort, but it's bearable.  On pain medication, and walking as much as I can.  No issues with gas pain.  When I sip my shakes, I do have some pain - I try to sip very slowly, and I can't determine what is causing the pain - I'm assuming it's just the stomach healing.  I'm not going to weigh myself until my follow-up visit on the 29th because I don't want to obsess about every pound.  I figure if I follow the plan, the weight will come off.

So, pain or no pain, I'm happy with having the surgery done.  It's challenging right now - but better days are coming. 

Good luck to you!

Welcome to the other side! 

Welcome!  Glad to hear that all went well. 

Thank you for the welcome!  Pineview,  I appreciate your input on setting goal weight,  congratulations on your success!  I think our overall goal weights will be similar,  I hope I am as successful as you in getting there!

Mary Gee congrats on your surgery as well,  I'm glad yours went well also!  I don't know if I could hold out until the 29th without weighing, but I agree that I don't want to become obsessed with the scale.  My surgeon's office recommended waiting until the 1st follow up to weigh the first time,  which would be on Tuesday. 

I'm so glad to have made it to the other side! Did anyone else feel it was a little surreal that they'd actually done it? The 3 months of required prep sounded like such a long time but it flew right by. Can't wait to start shrinking out of my clothes :-)

I did wait a week to weigh myself after surgery, but now I weigh myself every morning and love it.  I use trend weight (link in my signature) and it really helps me to focus on my trend, not on day to day fluctuations.  For me, it's a huge boon since I can become unhealthily obsessed with numbers.  I highly recommend it.  

Glad that your surgery and recovery are going so well!  

I find that Miralax helps me a lot and isn't as... overkill as some other options.  Before I got to solids I added a dose a day to protein shakes.  Now I just add in a dose to my daily shake if I hadn't had a good bowel movement the previous day.  Knock on wood, my bowels are pretty happy!