Rootman

Are you on a PPI like Nexium? It may be ACID that's making you feel hungry. While it's true that a majority of the portion of stomach cut away reduces the amount of acid production, what's left may still over run the small sleeve space and make you feel "hungry" or cause GERD. Ask you doc about it next time.

Yeah me too, but it's kinda creepy when other GUYS check you out - NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT YA'KNOW.

There is someone bound to be out there that has had a sleeve that long as that's about the timeframe that the sleeve was starting to be used. However, FINDING someone that's had it that's active on the forum is going to be a pickle. They were few and far between way back then and the proceedure started out using a much larger boughie (resulting in a larger sleeve size), so apples won't be the same apples in the comparison. HOWEVER, there are scads of people who have had their stomachs removed entirely or greatly reduced in size due to health issues like ulcers or cancer, and they are all doing fine. Do a search on Google about stomach removal. I remember reading about several families who have ALL had their stomachs removed due to a double genetic whammy left them all almost certainly to get a rare stomach cacer. One family I think was here in the USA, anohter was like in Romania or a Slavik country. They were getting on fine decades after the surgery. I also seem to remember soldiers from the US civil war getting stomach wounds and having their stomachs removed. If they could survive the primative surgery and live to tell about it something must be working right. I personally am 1+ years out and despite a few bouts of kidney stones becasue of dehydration I have had no real ill effects from the surgery. I wish you the best in your searches for the answers!

Take a look at your tongue also, it's probably covered in slimy fuzz too! Get a tongue scraper and use it once or twice a day with a mouthwash rinse afterward. It lets up - in a few months! So stick with it, this too shall pass.

I swim 1 hour 5 days a week. I manage 120 lengths of a 25 yars swimming pool in 1 hour.

Same as most of the above, I didn't want a piece of plastic floating around in my abdoman and I didn't want the ongoing maintenance. And the VSG BEING permanant is precisly what attracted me to it. I knew with all the diet failures I've had in the past that I would eihter cheat my weight back on or gain it back when the thing had to be removed - and it WILL have to be removed eventually, eihter becasue of device failure, damage ot the staomach or complications (or at least stay in till death, not necessarily becasue of the band that is). Plenty of people have lived long, full lives without an entire stomach due to other issues (cancer or injusry), so living with a SMALL one is no big issue. I'm over a year out and eat plenty and am satisfied by what I eat. I feel better, look better and have better health than my ENTIRE adult life pre-op.

Happened to me too - although I was jusy getting down on my knees to do something and found I lacked the strength to get back up. I had to crawl over to a desk, open a drawer and crawl up the side to get back upright. It was just another low point that prompted me to get this surgery.

Like anything it is dependant on many things like the rateyou typically heal at, meds you might take, etc. But typically the scar is fully formed at like 6 months, certainly by a year out.

For me "the sleeve" is the embodiment of the hope that I will FINALLY be free of the life threatening obesity driven lifestyle. To make it an object just makes it more personal and gives me a focal point to use to be a more heathy weight. I've been a slave to food and overewight, obese, morbidly obese and finally nearly super obese most all my adult life, so my sleeve is also my buddy, my pal and coming along with me on this fantastic journey. He hasn't let me down yet!

Better in the trash than on the hips

So, downing a big cup of this and immediatly going on a road trip are not recommended?

Pretty cool! I remember when I passed my wife weight in loss - there is no way I could picture having her hop on my back and carry her around all day - how did we do it when it was fat of the same weight we carried? Now I've lost 170 pounds. I could not lift 170 pounds let alone carry it around. I mean, yikes! that's the weight of a full grown adult! Man, simply amazing!

Here's a more technical question. How is it that the inside surfaces of the stomach accross the staple line fuse without being ablated to expose blood vessels and raw tissue? I would thing that just the 2 surfaces of the stomach would not bond together and seal / scar over without be roughed up first. Like any other tissue the surfaces won't normally bond together - or else we'd be a sticky mess with adhesions all over the place.

Ahh, the wiles of a beautiful woman, enough to make a man trip and fall! Great pics - and a killer smile. If only I were younger, and single, and in Texas . . . :smile1:

It is a common misunderstanding though that this is a DEDUCTION from your GROSS INCOME - NOT a tax refund. This means as DebiC pointed out you meet the criteria. You will not GET BACK the deduction, you simply will not pay taxes on the income spent out of pocket above and beyond the 7.5% requirement. I've actually seen a few instances on this board of people touting they will get a refund on the amount. Nope, just reduced taxes - which will bring you more of a refund if you are due one.

Well "dumping" is hard to define. YES as mentioned technically "real" dumping is only for bypass patients who lack the valve to keep raw food out of the intestines, but anyone with a sleeve and indeed ANYONE AT ALL can have very similar results from food being passed too quickly from the stomach to the intestines. The gut reacts the same way by spasming, cramping and you may pass it all out very quickly. Almost everyone has this at one time or another and it's commonly attributed to food poisoning when it's actually just a bad reaction to a food or quantity of food. Its like trying to define what a COLD is as opposed to the true FLU (that is real influenza - NOT gastroenteritis or the "stomach flu") . Many symptoms overlap so we all lump it together as the COLD or FLU. So we all can "dump" but the REASON is a little different. Like bypass patients when we over run the capacity of the sleeve - or even for no reason at all - we "dump" insufficiently processed food into the gut an LOOK OUIT! PAIN and suffering, vomiting and loose bowels can ocour.

Congrats! I'm just about a month ahead of you - it's amazing how the time flies!

It ain't no picnic for the guys either. As Diva pointed out, less mass with the hormones being released in the fat means MORE hormones per volume. As the OP stated it's bad enough for us guys walking around "like a guy" without this being added on top too. I've had to take testosterone replacement for a few years and I'm now taking 1/4 the amount I started out with - with HIGHER results. High T also makes you aggressive. I was the Incredible Hulk for a while - HULK SMASH!

As stated already - CALL THE DOC ASAP. If they can't see you right away PLEASE GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM. YOu can get very sick very fast if you get dehydrated. Please take car of yourself!

Nope, been tested and iron is still higher, typically a tad higher than a typical person, always has been in my case. I swaer I woke up from surgery and have been cold ever since. I went from sleeping in my undershorts to sleeping with undershorts, undershirt and wool socks to those PLUS long fleece pants and a henley tee. All the while in a bedd piled high with covers and a heated mattress pad. I wear a sweater at work nearly all the time in the Winter too. We've speulated elsewhere in the forum but have nothing conclusive. Other theories are of course the weight loss and less insulation (fails to explain a sudden lack of heat and getting cold while still overweight at weights previously hot at) and the lack of ghrelin from the surgery removing the largest part of the stomach that produces it. I know of someone who had a RNY bypass and therefore has their stomach still intact, although off to the side. She is freezing too. So the ghrelin theory may not hold Water. DECREASED caloric intake certainly must play a part, the body is using the calories we take in just to keep alive and not sparing any for excising heat.

All plans by BCBS are NOT equal. BCBS offers complete insurance and management plans for self insured companies who pick the level of plan coverage. So there is no solid right answer to your question - it all depends on your plan, carrier and perhaps employers selected coverage. I have insurance but elected to go self pay to avoid this 6 month (tytpically longer) and the hassle that went with it. It's not for everyone but it worked for me.

Man pre-op I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs! I was getting real uptight and was glad that being self paid I didn't have to wait that long. I think if I did have to wait for months I would of gone nuts. So you're in good company. P.S. I'm afraid I'm guilty of putting on a happy face when I am not really happy. I've been bummed a lot recently but try and keep up appearances for everyone else. So all is not as it seems, we all get down in the dumps and get anxious.

Mine gurgled incessantly when I laid down, never before or after eating - and THAT passed in a few months. So it sounds like this symptom is all over the board - he'll just have to wait and see if it passes!

Your struggle is exactly why I did NOT pursue my surgery through my insurance. I know it's not for everyone - but I was self pay in Mexico. I could of had the surgery in 2 weeks after my intial contact if I wanted. I simply did not want to wait. In 10 months TOTAL I was a slimmer 170 pounds lighter.

Doritos (and the like) are the main reason we ended up NEEDING a VSG. Remember Protein first, carbs last. All things are permissible but not all things expedient.