Rootman

Tijuana MX, Jerusalem Clinic. Dr. Almanza, VSG, $5000. I picked them just because I was most familiar with Tijuana than other MX cities. They contacted me first, the price was fair and I'm a cheapskate My insurance does cover bariatric surgery but I've heard of others having a hell of a time getting approved and I wanted a VSG - NOT a bypass - which is what the surgeons around here want you to have. I was also feeling so crappy with a myriad of problems due to my weight I wanted something done NOW. I had $5000 from an inheritance so I used it for this.

Man wait until the night before your surgery! I was stuck ALONE in San Diego in a hotel for 2 nights pre-op and I swear every other frickin' commercial on TV was for a pizza chain promoting a 5 chees and 2 bacon pizza - OMG I almost buckled! You can make it, keep it up, it'll be just that much LESS you have to lose post-op and will clear your bowels out and make post-op constipation just that much more unlikely.

Miralax once a day for me, I've taken it for years. 1/2 cap a day in a juice glass of Crystal Lite.

No better time to start then the present! At least a few days of a liquid diet will clear your bowels and lessen the effects of anesthetic induced constipation. It will also give you a jump start on the weight loss too. It certainly can't hurt.

Seems to work that way with me too. A few people have "warned" me about losing too much stating I look great now when I tell them I'm trying to drop another 70 pounds or so. It's true I have a "fairly" trim waste at 38" (compared to pre-op 52") but the backs of my thighs and calves are sure fat yet. I tend to lose it all over but not quite as much downstairs as upstairs.

Congrats! Can't wait till you hit <300, then 100 lbs total then your goal! The experiences just keep getting better and better. Keep up the good work, we all wish you the best!

$5k Tijuana MX Jerusalem Clinic, Dr. Almanza

In reality I think it is unusual to be catheterize for such a short operation. I know I wasn't and may on the board here have said the same. Do you have a choice? Can you ask NOT to be? They can always slip it in if you need it - although while you're awake

Taint any better for the guys neither. I have been on testosterone replacement for a little less than a year now, I think it's what really jump started my weight loss and spurred me on to getting a sleeve and losing 120+ pounds already. Prior to my Sleeve op I HAD leveled out about 650 ngdl which is just right. I started out at 125 - way low and just above the testosterone level a woman produces. After losing 80 pounds it was time for my level check and it shot all the way up to 1050! I too was "tearing heads off". We cut the dosage back to 3/4 CC from 1 full CC. My weight continues to drop and the last check I had the level was 1200! Have you ever seen the incredible Hulk movie? Well that was me. PISSED does not begin to describe my attitude The real trouble is that that is my peak, a week after my shot, when I test the trough (low point) just before a shot, I'm back to 125. So I go through these wild swings TWICE a month - shots are every 2 weeks. It's played hell with my emotions, I go from watching a sad TV program and weeping to wanting rip someones heart out and shove it down their throat for something like bumping in to me. I'll be glad when I reach my goal and can stabilize my weight and maybe stabilize my test. dosage and level.

Exactly the opposite for me, I had a distinct sour smell and extremely acid perspiration that has almost completely gone away since my sleeve, I also don't perspire nearly as much anymore, the effect was almost immediate after the surgery. I suspect it has something to do with the part of the vegas nerve that was taken out with the pendulous part of the stomach.

There is SOME truth to this. A "normal" modern diet is so chocked full of Vitamins that there is little real need for them, we often pass most of the extra vitamins taken right out in the urine, however being sleeved we eat so little it MAY result in shortfalls in some vitamins especially during the weight loss period. Vitamins are cheap insurance, by the time you show symptoms of a Vitamin related illness you are usually well past the time that just simply starting to take take them again can reverse it and further and more invasive treatment may be necessary. So YES take the vitamins others have listed above. You should get a full blood panel done at least every 6 months for the first coupe of years. By that time your weight should be stabilized and you should be able to eat sufficient quantities of food so that vitamins are just insurance against shortfall. B12 is one possible exception, it is adsorbed principally in the stomach and since we had 85% of it removed, well you can figure it out.

TP pretty much covered it. I'll put it more simply. I didn't want a plastic gizmo floating around in my gut for the rest of my life - so no band. I didn't want my plumbing rearranged so no bypass. I wanted the sleeve because it is a simple removal of a majority of the stomach and doesn't introduce anything or rearrange anything.

I have had an ongoing battle with it for more than 35 years. I started with Miralax daily a few years back - shortly after they went OTC. I take 1/2 cap in a small juice glass with Crystal light at half strength (can't take CL at full strength - too sweet). I tried a generic version and it just would not work, don't know why.

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/13516-ticker-tutorial-for-vst-lbt-with-pictures/

I was sleeved on Monday and returned to work Friday - but was miserable for a few weeks. I work in an office and had understanding people that helped with what little lifting I normally did. Realistically, I'd say anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks, just depends on how tough you are, how badly the surgery affects you and how bad you want to get back to work. This all varies per individual and there is no hard and fast rules. If possible I'd plan on at least 3 weeks and come back early if you can, it seems to be easier to do this then plan for 1 week and try to beg for more when you can't come back.

That there were 2 maybe 3 skinny people inside of me just screamin' to get out. Now I'm down to 1 1/4!

Yes, they will show up on x-rays as a distinct black bar following the curve of your sleeve. If getting x-rays for that area of the body you may want to warn the doctor just so they know. Absolutely NO effect on the x-ray itself, they just show up. The same is true for MRI, titanium is nonferrous, that is nonmagnetic so the MRI will not move them or attract them. Metal detectors should not go off for them either as titanium is a very light metal, almost as light as aluminum. They would have to be set and an incredibly high level to go off and they'd be finding everything, surgical pins, bridgework, metal zippers etc.

I go 4 or 5 times a week, I swim for 90 minutes M-W-F and walk, stationary bike and some resistance training Tu-Th. We've got an excellent senior wellness center in my town and it's only $20 a year for as much as you want, full indoor track, dozen weight training machines, lap pool and a therapy pool. It's been just what I need.

I'm about the same time frame as you and YES I've noticed that in the last few weeks I've actually gotten hungry, especially after a 90 minute swim or so, but as Lakelady pointed out it's not the ravenous monster it once was. Pre-op my sugar would drop like a rock and I would gorge myself on carbs like crazy. Now I just get a wee bit hungry and if it happens between meals a few saltine crackers eases it. If I face a meal hungry I fill up fast and can't eat anywhere near the amount I once could. Just mind your intake and stay away from high calorie foods that are bad for you and you should be just fine.

I wonder too if the x-ray actually showed the 3D view of your stomach, I mean it may look like a dumbell from the front but does it bulge out front to back at the top and bottom - something that might not show on a single x-ray view? That would mean the stomach is simply potato shaped and bulges out in different directions. It seams to me that on an empty stomcah it would be kind of relaxed nd may show up this way as the center sort of draws up??? Maybe?

It's aggravating, I've been stuck with the same 2 pounds all week. It also makes no sense to me whatsoever, I record every morsel that passes my lips and never exceed 1100 calories, and I've been swimming for 4+ hours a week and doing some walking and the exercise bike 2 days a week. Some days I end up with NEGATIVE calories and I still am not losing this week. It's happened twice before for a week or so but it'll break soon. Sure is infuriating though not seeing the scale move. I've flipped off that dang scale more than once this week

"Mr. Sexy Butt" - this by an enormous woman at work. Being a guy I wasn't too offended, just startled a bit. No one has EVER called me sexy before or commented about by butt. well except for calling me "Hugh Jass" a few years ago

Me too! I have ALWAYS been heat sensitive, even as a skinny kid. I would sweat copious amounts constantly all day and night at the slightest hint of warmth. I would actually leave salt stains on the sheets and pillow. I am now down 120 pounds and am cold all night, have to have the heating blanket on HIGH. I think there is more to it then just losing the fat insulation because as I said I have always been heat sensitive. A lower matabolism may explain it partly too but I often wonder if there isn't something else involved. Theories people?

Patience my dear, patience. The body is a wonderful thing and when calories are reduced so drastically it pulls a few tricks in order to preserve all the fat that it has so diligently packed away for years by slowing the metabolism and stopping other functions altogether - hair growth and some cell division for example. The body cannot STAY in this "starvation mode" forever or else organ shutdown and eventual death will occur. You are still eating and providing SOME nourishment so the body will eventually resume all it's functions and you will start losing again. Some people are lucky and this rarely happens, others seem to lose in fits and starts all the way through. Keep up what you're doing. I am of the firm opinion that there is nothing that you can do to "break" a stall, it just takes time and anything that we do to "break" the stall just happens to coincide with the time that it takes for the body to start to lose again. Don't get discouraged, just keep up the proper diet and exercise and you will start losing again.

Get to the doctor, NOW!! If indeed you are yellow that indicated jaundice and that means liver problems. Also, are you telling us you are on a strict liquid POST-OP diet for 30 days? There is no reason for that, you should graduate to heavier liquids, mushies then small amounts of soft solid food. Make sure you are doing what your doctor has requested and not just what you think you need.