What to Expect One Year after Weight Loss Surgery

365 days later and there is a whole lot less of me. It’s my 1-year surgiversary, it’s a thing, I swear. My life has changed after getting the gastric sleeve, my body changed and everything is different now that i’m Post-op. It’s one year later, here’s what to expect one year after weight loss surgery

Day One – Post-Op

Chaos, coming out of anesthesia for me was pure confusion. I knew time had passed but I woke up to a nurse, who I only assume was a dominant dungeon master in her free time, barking orders at me and moving me all around. File this under TMI, but I kept throwing up and peeing. I remember blacking in an out of a drug-induced stupor and that’s about it. My stomach felt like I did a thousand sit-ups post-op, but other than that I felt pretty good, of course, the Dilaudid probably helped with that.

I couldn’t keep fluids down, so I stayed a few extra nights in the hospital. Every time I turned around; I was injected with drugs so I felt no pain. I had intense morning nausea, but within a week it was gone.

Month One

My body stopped hurting when I was one month post-op. I slept through the night, I stopped taking pain meds 3 days after I came home from the hospital. Then,I moved from a 2-week liquid diet and then to soft food. I was never hungry. In fact, I had to set reminders to eat and drink water. That’s how I’ve become obsessed with my smart water bottle.

My husband and I fought a lot. Weight Loss Surgery is known to cause the bariatric divorce. My husband loved me fat and he loves me skinny. I think the dynamic shifted in our relationship after surgery. For the first month, I didn’t cook at all and that was part of our normal routine. 

Honestly, the smell of food stressed me out and cooking food I couldn’t eat made me want to jump into bad habits.  

Related Posts:

• Weight Loss Surgery Pre-Approval Process
• Stopping Hair Loss after Weight Loss
• Vitamins and Protein after Bariatric Surgery

Self Sufficient me was relying a lot on my husband to do stuff he didn’t normally need to help me with, it was a paradigm shift. But we had a long talk and put everything out on the table, like we always do and honestly, we’ve been fine ever since.

Also, at the one month mark, I started walking again for exercise, nothing crazy maybe a 20-minute walk every night.

Month Three

One morning I woke up and looked in the mirror and realized I looked different. My body looked healthier. By then I lost about 40lbs and my tummy was flatter, my size 42DDD breasts were a 38 DD (a lot smaller in other words). My clothes were baggy. I decided to finally try on a pair of pants a size smaller, they fit. The jeans had no stretch and zipped right up. I remember standing there confused and looking in the mirror for an extra-long time.

I hadn’t failed.

For once, I was proud of the weight loss I accomplished, for following the diet perfectly, I wasn’t a failure.

Month Six

By 6 months post-op I dropped another size in pants and was down almost 60lbs. The weight loss slowed significantly; my bariatric team told me it would happen, but it was still disappointing.

Obviously,I lose weight slowly to begin with, and eventually, my body would remember that. It was Christmas and I had a small depression on top of my stall. I thought I was failing, I wasn’t, but I was too hard on myself.

I continued eating the bariatric way. On my birthday I had 4 ounces of wine for the first time in 7 months. I was wasted! Entertained my husband at dinner. It wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t really enjoy the way it made me feel, not sure how to explain that one.

Going out to eat isn’t that fun for me anymore. I can eat a few bits, then I need a to-go box. I can make one entrée last for 3 days of leftovers. My husband and I are (were) foodies so its still a weird feeling when we go out to eat because I’m uncomfortable.

People started to notice the weight I lost, some I hadn’t seen since the summer, so a lot of people were shocked at the weight I dropped.

At the 4-month mark, my hair started falling out in clumps. Here’s what I did to stop the hair loss and regrow it.

One Year Post-Op

For the last 4 months, my husband and I have been quarantining from home due to Covid-19. 

I haven’t been to a gym, to the park, or even to a grocery store. During this time, it is challenging to keep on track. I’m down a little over 70lbs but I still have 40lbs to go.

My state, New Jersey, had the second-largest cases in the US (and the world) of Coronavirus, so we were shut down for a long time. Meat and protein powder were hard to come by for a while. I had to get creative because while my husband could live on rice and pasta, I couldn’t and I wasn’t about to gain weight after everything I’d gone through.

I squeezed a home gym in our office, ordered meat from a butcher online, and got myself back to a somewhat normal sleeping pattern and I’m starting to lose again. It wasn’t easy, but I found away to make it work, and yes things got expensive for a while.

My hair started growing back around the 6-7-month mark after taking the right steps and proper nutrition.  

Too much sugar makes me feel like shit so if I want a little treat, I do fun-size peanut m & ms. I got heavy into baking for some reason during quarantine, so I became a cake fairy and started dropping cakes off at my friends’ houses so I wouldn’t eat it. I can take a few sips of things that are carbonated, but I don’t like to, my stomach hates it. Pre-op I could drink 40 ounces of soda a day like it was water, now I don’t even crave it. That’s the biggest shock to me because I was full on addicted to soda for years, now we don’t even have it in the house.

Progress

Overall, I’ve lost 70+ pounds, lost 100+ inches, dropped 4 pants sizes, several bra sizes (thank you sports bras), all my shoes fit, I’m off all medication, I feel amazing and my personal favorite I can clip my toenails without my organs being pushed up into my throat.

I made great progress and I’m just going to say it, I’m proud of myself.

My next goal is to lose the remaining 40lbs, exercise 4 days a week, and tone up and gain my muscle back. I’ll continuing keeping you up to date on my post-op life.

Don’t forget to subscribe and to follow us below on social media.