Last week I shared that I have lost 120lbs with the help of Gastric Sleeve Surgery.  It is a procedure that has changed my life and given me a tool to lose weight and keep it off.  Yall had lots of questions and today I will be answering some of them.  I wasn’t able to answer all of them in 1 post, but will be doing many more posts to answer them all soon.  I will also be going into much greater detail soon!  

GASTRIC SLEEVE SURGERY: FAQ PART 1

DISCLAIMER: ALL OF MY ANSWERS ARE FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.  EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT AND HAS A DIFFERENT JOURNEY.  IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING THIS PROCEDURE DO LOTS OF RESEARCH.  I WANTED TO BE PREPARED FOR EVERYTHING, BUT LUCKILY I HAVE HAD A PRETTY SMOOTH ROAD SINCE SURGERY.

***I WILL BE ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS IN A LOT MORE DETAIL IN LATER POSTS.  I HAVE SO MANY PLANNED THAT GO INTO SPECIFICS ON EVERYTHING.  

WLS=Weight Lost Surgery

• WHAT DOES EATING LOOK LIKE NOW?
  • I use the word “journey” when talking about this process because that is truly what it is.  What you eat, the amounts, the type, etc changes as you get further out.  I will be covering all the phases in detail in a later post, but now that I am a year out my eating looks pretty normal, but just much smaller portions.  While Gastric Sleeve gives me a tool to help lose weight it is my job to eat well, work out, etc and do my part in this process or you can put weight back on.  On a daily basis I eat low carb.  I would not say I am doing Keto, because I don’t have a fat goal I am trying to hit, but I try to eat very low carb and sugar.  Protein is one of the most important things to focus on after WLS.  I start my mornings with a protein drink.  I love them, they are easy and I get a huge chunk of my protein goal out of the way right off the bat!  I like to add Collagen Peptide powder to mine which adds an additional 9 grams of protein so right away I am at 39 grams before 8 am!  Your nutritionist will give you a protein goal, but mine is around 80-90 grams a day!  I then typically have lunch around 11:30.  Typically it will consist of chicken and veggies.  I probably eat around 1-1.5 cups of food in a meal if I am eating what I should be eating.  Protein makes you full faster so I always try to get my protein in first.  You will learn there are things called “slider foods” like chips and other empty carbs that you can eat much more of.  I try to avoid those on most days.  After lunch I might have a snack around 2 ish.  Typically a hard boiled egg.  Then I have dinner around 5:30.  Again this typically consists of 1-1.5 cups of some protein/veggie combo.  If I get hungry before bed I might have another protein drink or a mini cheese board.  I also drink a ton of water!  I try to get in around 100 oz a day.  I still love to go out to eat, but I always split meals or bring food home.  1 restaurant meal will typically feed me 2-3 times now.
• DO YOU EAT SMALL AMOUNTS?
  • Yes, much smaller than I used to, but way more than when I first had the surgery.  I eat about 1-1.5 cups of food per meal.
• ANY FOOD AVERSIONS? 
  • I have not had any.  They are very common after WLS, but I have been lucky and am able to eat anything.  My tastebuds have not changed either.  
• DO I THROW UP OFTEN?
  • No.  If you eat too much or eat fast you can throw-up, but this has not been a problem for me.  I try to eat slower and really listen to when my body says it is full because full is different now than before.  First of all, I never felt full before so I had to gauge as to when to stop.  Now, I definitely get full and if I get too full it is a little painful.  I also will get full in my throat.  Like, I can feel it up higher.  It is a strange feeling.  The further you get our from surgery the less you feel like this.  In the beginning it is way easier to over eat and throw up.  It is very much a mental game because you brain is telling you to eat more, but your stomach is telling you that you are full.
• DO I DRINK ALCOHOL?
  • Yes, I do.  I am still figuring this out.  I waited until 4 months after surgery to have a drink.  I am a cheap date now!  I get tipsy very fast, but it wears off very fast too.  I make sure to drink SLOW so I don’t over do it.  I still love my margaritas, but typically a 1/2 is plenty.  Every now and then I will have a full one, but I typically split with Geoff.  Wine is easier for me to drink than Margaritas.  It seems to make me less typsy and I can consume more of it.  Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.  Doctors have different responses to alcohol after WLS, but my doctor says everything with in moderation.
• SURGERY PROCESS AND RECOVERY?
  • This is a questions that deserves several posts in detail, but here is a quick overview.   The week before surgery my doctor requires a week long fast aka PRE OP DIET.  You are not able to eat any food.  I literally had protein shakes and strained cream of chicken soup all week long.  This was the hardest week!  They want you do drop a lot of weight quickly to shrink your liver so it is not in the way during the surgery.  After a week you go in for your surgery and it takes about 45 minutes.  It is done laparoscopically so you have 5 little incisions when it is all over.  They staple your stomach, making it much smaller and remove the rest of the stomach through your largest incision (about 1 inch long).  It is outpatient surgery, but I was the last one of the day so I ended up staying the night and leaving in the morning.  The week after surgery it is a CLEAR LIQUID DIET.  I drank water and Powerade Zero all week.  This week was easier since you had just had the surgery.  I took it easy for the first 2 days and then felt much more like myself after about a week.  You have to get up and walk every few hours to make sure you don’t get blood clots.  Week 2 after surgery you move on to FULL LIQUID DIET which means you introduce protein shakes and cream soup again (kind of like the PREOP DIET).  Week 3 starts the PUREED DIET.  Then you slowly start introducing food.  I would say 2 days I was kinda down and out, a week I felt better, a month was a big milestone and 3 months out is like regular life.
• WHAT DID I DO ALL WITH MY CLOTHES I OUTGREW?
  • I ended up giving them all to some of my friends.  I have a few things I am keeping to remember and then a few things I will be selling at a later date.
• HOW OVERWEIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO BE?
  • This probably varies by doctor, but here is a good rule of thumb I found online. “To be eligible for bariatric surgery, you must be between 16 and 70 years of age (with some exceptions) and morbidly obese (weighing at least 100 pounds over your ideal body weight and having a BMI of 40).”
• WHAT IS THE COST/INSURANCE?
  • This also varies greatly.  Most people have their surgery covered by insurance.  When insurance pays for it there is a whole different procedure.  They have lots of rules on how to qualify, many require a weight loss plan before hand to make sure you are committed, etc.  I know many many people who have only paid a small deductible for WLS.  Many people are also able to get skin removal covered by insurance.  There are many qualifiers for that as well. Personally I was a cash patient.  My husband and I are both self employed so our private insurance did not cover WLS.  I ended up having my gallbladder removed at the same time which added additional cost, but I would say as a cash patient my total ended up being around 12k.  It was an investment, but to me it was the best investment we could make.  Honestly, we save so much money eating out now, my insurance cost has gone down because my BMI is at a healthy range, and long term I am sure we saved thousands on health costs, etc.  
• WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS?
  • One of the biggest side effects is hair loss.  This is something I was very concerned about and it is a real thing.  I always make sure to take my vitamins and get in my protein, but I still had significant hair loss.  Luckily, I had a lot of hair to begin with, but I was shocked how much came out!  It does eventually stop.  Mine has stopped and is now growing back in so I have all kinds of baby hairs!  The same thing happened to me after having both kids.  Even with the hair loss I wouldn’t change a thing!  This is a process and a big procedure.  I have literally lost a person and feel better than ever.
  • Brusing is another thing I have noticed.  I bruise a lot easier now.  
  • My period went nuts.  It was all over the place.  It has finally regulated itself, but that was definitely a side effect. Overall, the side effects were totally worth the benefits. 
  • Constipation is also part of the process.  In the beginning you eat such small amounts that there is not much for your body to process so it moves through your system much slower.  Drink your water, take your vitamins!
  • Now that I am a year out and my weight has stabilized, these have really started to go away.  My Dr said that during rapid weight loss the body goes through a huge transformation and your hormones can kind of get out of whack which causes a lot of these things.

I will be working to answer your other gastric sleeve surgery questions soon!  There were so many more, but I didn’t want to make this post too long!  If you have other questions I didn’t answer here, post them in the comments below and I will add them to my future posts!  Hope this was helpful!

READ ALL ABOUT MY WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY HERE

**If you’ve had or are interested in Gastric Sleeve surgery or Mommy Makeover type of plastic surgery join the HOH Private Facebook Community where we can all share our stories, get questions answered and cheer each on during our individual journeys.  I am hoping this will be a very helpful resource for everyone considering/or have had these procedures.