Rootman

Should be OK and taste good too. Watch the salt though, the seem to pour the salt into French Onion soup.

Infornored, when I first read your post the statement " He thinks it's a very risky surgery and it sounds like the easy way out.". The "easy" way out? Why yes it is, it seems to be far easier than the band - and permanent too, remember you are going to have to have a lap band removed at some point. Probably have a few adjustments and basically have a piece of plasic in your gut. There are quite a few people around here that had a lap band and had to have it taken out and then had a sleeve. Have you roamed the sleeve forum? Read any comments about SLIMING with the sleeve? Nasty thick mucus comes up and literally streams and strings from your mouth. There too are problems with erosion, basically the band rubs a hole in your stomach. Slippage too. I looked into it and soon dismissed it. There are success stories but they seem to be overwhelmed with failures too. It's not the be-all and end-all of WLS but it WORKS. As TijuanaPlacation points out above, all surgeries present a risk. I wish you well, make the choice you can agree on, your marriage is important too.

Well welcome and good luck. You are just starting a life long adventure.

They are called lipomas (lie-poe-ma) a benign fatty tumor. I had 3 removed last year and a 4th ended up NOT being a lipoma but squamous cell carcinoma, The skin fat surrounding them may shrink but the lipoma will most likely not shrink. Surgery can be performed in a doctors office if they are willing to do it there. They are harmless but unsightly.

Congrats on your success and thanks for posting the long term success of your co-worker, it is really inspiring to here that it KEEPS working years out!

Well I'm not always cold - yet - with only 70 lbs down but I am not hot any more. Used to ALWAYS turn the fan on at work, I no longer need it. I used to sweat in bed incessantly which left the bed smelling funky, which again doesn't happen. Let me put it this way, better to be thin and cold that fat and hot and sweaty, at least you can cover up with something whereas I could only take so much off to keep cool.

YES he should require it and it is for your own safety and health. The area that is being operated on is very near and "under" the liver, eating the pre-op diet will help "shrink" the liver as it is no longer as heavily involved in processing the stuff out of whole foods that we eat. This makes the surgeons job easier and makes it easier on you too. Also, if you are on a pre-op diet without a gut full of waste from whole foods there is a lot less likelihood that you will get constipated after surgery - which can be VERY painful and even life threatening if you allow it to become a blockage. WARNING GRAPHIC: I was chatting with a couple of guys from the housekeeping staff at the place I went. They both had VSG's. They were bragging about pigging out on chicken wings, tacos and vodka shots the NIGHT before surgery. They both admitted that they were so sick and got so stopped up that they wished they'd of died. The pain was incredible, one fellow was afraid to "push" on his bowels lest he burst his incisions, he eventually had to and pushed out a dry sticky mass that felt like "someone's fist being pushed out from the inside". The gut pain was better after that but he said it was a few days before he could sit upright on anything but a pillow. He was laughing about it when he spoke to me but says he was in tears when it happened. So given both issues I'd HIGHLY advise a liquid pre-op diet. Take a laxative a few days before surgery too so as to get cleaned out.

Hi FatToPhat, I too am an emotional eater - or WAS is more like it. I REALLY loved food and snacking and munching was my favorite pastime. I am in my 8th week post-op and so far my physical appetite has been DECIMATED, I am NEVER hungry. When I eat food tastes good for maybe the first and second bite and often not even the first few bites. I literally have to force myself to finish my meal. Food tastes different in that I can seemingly actually taste it now, the variance in textures and flavors, the spices all seem very distinct to me. A side effect is that most of the "want to" to eat is now gone too, I just draw no joy from eating and I no longer want to. Now this may change as I heal further and get into the final stages of my weight loss and stabilize what my sleeve is doing. If I do start to really desire food I hope that the break I've had during this time of "tastelessness" will help me break with the old habits of emotional eating. I guess I am one of the "lucky" ones that no longer am an emotional eater. I am never physically hungry and food just isn't a driving force in my life as it used to be. I now eat to survive rather than live to eat.

http://www.hospitaljerusalem.com.mx/ $5K total.

Yep Susanne is right, and don't forget that you haven't passed the remainder of that food yet either, a lot of the liquid will be eliminated from your bowel as well as the bladder. One possible hint I can give you is DON'T weigh daily, it's TOO easy to get caught up in the roller coaster ups and downs and get discouraged and - what are we PREVIOUSLY famous for? Pig out in disgust - even though that pig put will be much smaller it never helps. Go back to your regular diet, I bet within a week you'll be back on track. We all need to Celebrate once in a while too.

Yes, while a sleeve may be just the ticket for you your BMI is only 30.3, very low by most standards and puts you just BARELY into the obese category. I honestly think I would try other alternatives like a good diet before I committed to the lifelong change of a VSG. Just my opinion.

Well first thing - I am open to being invited to your house for supper any day! Man, I've really been turned off by food lately after my op but pulled pork and cornbread actually made my mouth water! Cornbread is loaded with sugar, it has to be or else it tastes nastier than hell without it - and some places server it "plain" without all the sugar, I personally can't stand it. To show what a bad boy used to be we used to make up a pan of cornbread - the old Jiffy Mix brand which isn't much better than Trader Joe's - and I'd eat it with maple syrup. Man, talk about good! I'd more than likely barf it up now as sweets just don't cut it for me, but the memories! BTW: She IS right about the calories: http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/trader-joes/cornbread

It may be LOW blood sugar, do you have a meter you can check it with? THey are very inexpensive, with strips and lancets it shouldn't run you more than 30 dollars. Have you gotten ANY liquids down? Perhaps a Protein shake - I know they aren't the best but I use Boost by Nestle. The others I tried gagged me something awful. A tip I learned from a physical therapist is to pinch your left pinky finger just at the first joint (next to the nail), for some reason it clears up vertigo in a lot of people. Baring the above check with your doctor, it may be just emotional / shock too. I wish you well!

Congrats, the next goal reached will be that much sweeter.

Yep, sorry you had to go through that. If it wasn't you then his victim would have been the next person of color or handicapped or super skinny or whatever. Mentally disturbed people lash out sometimes.

I remember a while ago there was an episode of House MD on TV about a guy that was making money hiring himself out as a guinea pig and taking all kinds of medications, one antacid he was taking allowed the bezoar to form and some other drugs got caught in the thing and failed to dissolve - hence his problem he was hallucinating because of the undissolved medication was breaking loose and finally hitting his system at a much higher dose then originally planned. That's how *I* know what a bezoar is. Who says sitting around and watching TV isn't good for something

Stalls ARE common. There are things you can do to help. DO NOT weigh yourself every day, do it once a week. You won't get as discouraged with the ups and downs. DO NOT set your expectations so high, 2 pounds a week will be 110 pounds a YEAR - look to the long term CAREFULLY count your calories - inspect labels CAREFULLY, an old trick is to declare ridiculously small portions. That can or pouch that you eat in one sitting? It may be listed as TWO SERVINGS on the label, you therefore need to count TWICE the calories when figuring your intake. DO NOT limit your Water intake in an attempt to lose "water weight" , remain hydrated. It is very unlikely that you are drinking too much water. REMAIN ACTIVE, walking is the BEST exercise post surgery. WATCH THE "GRAZING", while most NUTs / Docs recommend 3 meals plus Snacks the snacks need to be lower calorie and not equal to a full meal. Avoid high fat, high sugar snacks. CONCENTRATE on Protein. Your intake is limited, you therefor need to get the best nutrition in FIRST, then carbs / sugars if there is room left. BE PATIENT - you body is a wonderful thing, when faced with this rapid decline in caloric input it does many things to "lean out the throttle" and use just the energy that it is taking in rather than the fat stores it has so carefully stored away for years. It can only do this for so long then it is forced to start burning fat. Stick with it, it works. DID I SAY to stick with it? Yep I already did. If you're like the most typical of us here on the VSG forum you've tried and failed at many a diet. This is NOT a diet it is a physical block to drive down your caloric intake. DON'T GIVE UP, again, stick with it, it'll work.

The staples are permanent, they are titanium and never corrode. While I've never seen what they look like long term I would imagine that after a few years they would be pretty much enveloped in scar tissue as the stomach heals.

I was sleeved Dec 6 2010 and I still get a film. It is a nasty yellow stuff that coats my tongue, it's better than it was the first weeks but still present. I went to the drug store and got a tongue scraper and scrape my tongue every time I brush. I also use orange Listerine at every brush too. If I were to hazard a guess I would say it's from burning a lot of fat rather than the carbs / Protein directly from food? This is just a guess.

Yes, scary. So glad you caught it in time. My prayers are with you.

I was sleeved 12/6/11 and down 70lbs. I'm in the same boat as hugs, insufficient protein and water as well as calories for that matter, I sometimes get as little as 400 to 700 calories a day. My back is killing me and I wonder if I'm adsorbing muscle from that area.

Good luck - great thing to be excited about!

Dec 6th 2010 http://www.hospitaljerusalem.com.mx/

THe only thing I would consider is the fact that you should choose high protein items instead of vegs. Pureed meat, beans etc.

I am curious to know what your total out of pocket expense was for your VSG surgery after your insurance policy paid up. I myself did self pay for $5000 plus another $500 or so for travel and lodging. I did not pursue insurance because I did not want to wait for approval, my health was declining fast.