1-4-Many

I really appreciated reading this thread. I am not at all into this about looks but this is the one surgery I will have to have. 10 -11 years ago when I lost a ton of weight I looked into this and the comments about the severe pain really surprise me. I had consultations with 3 different plastic surgeons and they all said this was one of the least painful reconstructive you could have as it was typically all about fat and skin, not cutting into muscle. My understanding was that there would be drains but now that I've had one of those for 10 days with the sleeve (due to having the gall bladder out at the same time) I know I can cope with them. BTW, 2 of the 3 surgeons were very ethical and actually told me the same thing -- they don't like doing this operation due to the high level of dissatisfaction. I had to assure them that I wanted a 160 pound arm that sagged, not a 365 pound arm (my starting point those years ago) that sagged. The 3rd plastic surgeon was almost who you would expect to see on a tv sitcom, trying to con me into surgery the next day! My arms are my real weak point. My stomach isn't an issue at all. But my arms are so bad it will prohibit me from wearing certain clothes as I will need large sleeves to almost tuck all the sloppy skin into. I just can't live with that the rest of my life. Some day I'd like to travel a bit to some beaches and I can't do that in a 3/4 bathing suit! I'd really appreciate anyone who has this surgery posting and keeping it visible. And I will do the same in 18 months when I take a run for it.

This is interesting. How did you ever think to do that? And how do you get the capsules? Most of what I've seen are very glued or even sealed shut for safety.

Me too!

Tex: A lot of folks go through this fear. I thought it was perfectly normal. Yes, there are those who argued me and said I should only be excited but you can't fake feelings. But here's the one thing I knew that is absolutely true: Of all the future surgeries you are looking at, this is the least risky and the one that will have the most positive impact on any future surgeries. I decided I'd rather have one sleeve than 2 knee and 2 hip replacements. Or one sleeve that would make any future open heart surgery so much easier to survive and survive well. A friend of mine's Mom needed open heart. The doctor gave her 6 months to get ready. She was not fat but she, at 74, used that 6 months to lose 25 pounds and get herself lean and strong. I've never seen anyone breeze through open heart the way she did. Three weeks out she was going out to dinner in the evenings! My Mom, on the other hand, was about 40 pounds overweight and it was a struggle from day one for her. This one surgery can have more positive impact on you than anything else. I work for a very large company and know a lot of people who've had WLS and none of them have had any serious problems. And the issues they do have are due to being non compliant. You won't be an exception. As others have said, you've done your research and teamed with someone you trust. You wife will be very happy with the new you. And this surgery will probably mean you'll be with her many extra strong years! Good luck. You'll do great.

Two notes and one question: No chewable Vitamins have potassium in them. I'm amazed more surgeons don't make their people aware of this. I learned it only by reading label after label and then learning potassium is very bitter to taste when eaten. So if you are using a chewable bariatric, you are not getting additional potassium. I have had potassium issues over the past 2 months. I learned through trial and fingers crossed that potassium is very gentle on my sleeve. I have a 550 mg. supplement here I take and it goes down easy even on an empty stomach. Lastly - can it be dangerous to get too much potassium if you are taking supplements? If so, how would you know? How quickly can it become too much? I've had cramping and more heart rhythms since this surgery than I've had in my life and taking additional potassium always settles it down. But in between monitoring of blood work, I didn't know if I could accidentally get too much in my system.

It sounds like you got on it fast. But just one more thing, be aware of any smell. During the window of the hole healing where my drain was they told me a change in smell also indicates trouble. That might only be because it was a large opening that was healing, but it's just something else to be aware of just in case.

It really will. It's amazing the difference in how my brain processes things now. As I went past all the foods, there were some I didn't even fully look at because I knew they were not something I could tolerate or should not have. And as I took each tiny measures of food, what quite frankly would have been 1 or 2 bites max before, I was thinking of it as 1/2 of my meal. That's why I took so little. I had 3 meals left today and 4 tomorrow where I can eat this food. So basically I needed to find 14 to 21 small bites of food. And there was absolutely no sense in taking any more. Pretty amazing. (I did take one full piece of baked chicken to share with my doggy tomorrow.) So tonight is a good night for me. I had actual raw veggies and they sat well on my stomach. I ate 3 bites of lettuce and a piece of raw broccoli at only 2 months out. For me, this is a big deal. I've heard a lot of people can't eat lettuce and it's a favorite of mine. And as I get ready for bed, no heartburn even with the bit of sloppy joe that bit back. Light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I'll have room for a piece of cantaloupe yet this summer!

Two suggestions: Ditto to Coops. I cannot do ultra low carb so if you are, try ramping them up for a week or two and see how that makes you feel. For some of us, ultra low carb can create brain fog and depression. Even Adkins recognized that and therefore, kept his "induction" window of very low carb at 2 weeks. Second, get your hormone levels checked. I looked at your profile info and the mid-30's can reek havoc on hormones. It's probably something more diet related, but hormones can also be a culprit. And I feel your pain. The past year has been a real struggle for me. I know mine is based in stress (had a family tragedy - the type that was all over the news to kick it off) followed by 2 siblings and a best friend dying w/in 4 months and then 3 months later being sleeved. I'm also early 50's so toss in hormones and with this combo, I"m lucky I can dress myself most days. I hope you get a good answer and are feeling better soon.

This was something I thought I'd never do again but I was out last night and drove by a smorgasbord and saw a sign that they had a carry out. I actually wasn't a big smorgasbord eater before now so didn't know this. Well, I don't cook. And since my surgery, "cooking' has amounted to a lot of blending. So I'm 2 months out and eating the same things (baked white fish, tuna, eggs, fake eggs, yogurt, greek yogurt....) over and over again. Some day I know I will be out in public and need to eat "real food" with people around. So after I'd passed the smorgasbord and went to a store for a bit, I swung back around and went in and got a carry out. This may be the only time in US history that the smorgasbord won. I went around and looked for the healthy items and took on small scoop of them. My only disappointment was that they didn't have any meatloaf which was going to be my one little splurge. So yesterday and today I've had 2 or 3 bites of each item with my meals so I know how things are going to sit on my stomach. I live alone and have found this to be a very economical way to test things. I took a tiny bit of salad, a single piece of broccoli, a spoonful of sloppy joe. I moved past the baked white fish pretty fast. I'm getting very tired of that! It's been fun tasting the bits of things and not having to go buy a bag of lettuce to know whether I can take it or not. Much to my surprise the 3 bites of lettuce and the piece of broccoli went down fine. The sloppy joe, I knew from the first bit was a no-go. It had a bit of a kick to it and I seem to be very sensitive to anything spicy. It wasn't much, but I stopped after the first mini-bite. But I'm so sensitive to spicy that even Wendy's chilli tasted terribly spicy so it was probably not the sloppy job but me. So good to know! dinner tonight will be a small piece of baked chicken with a sweat and sour sauce and about a teaspoon of raisins. I loved raisins before and just wondered if they will knock me over. I'm betting they will be very sweet. I'm glad I did this. Even though it's only been a couple of bites at a time, it's given me some hope that there's a light at the end of the baked white fish tunnel. And the best part is that I was in my car and driving away before I even realized I'd forgotten to walk over to the desert bar that's separate from the meal food! Didn't even occur to me I was so excited they had three skinless baked chicken things to try!!!

Peanut butter is the one thing that gives me horrible heartburn that lingers for days. But I think I could actually tolerate the oats so there has to be a version I can work up with this idea. I too have mucho protein mix I have to figure out a way to get rid of.

As Kelly says, I think the idea is to alert them to not immediately shove a tube down you. That's why we were told to put that on the front with explanation on the back. In theory, and as Myrori has learned it's only a theory, once the person sees "gastric path altered" they will know what they should do. As an FYI, my program has a 24 hour emergency number and I have that on the bottom of my alert. It doesn't necessarily reach a doctor, but it reaches someone who understands the situation and can explain it to a medical person. And I really would have never guessed how necessary that might be in a hospital ER!

Yea, I have a closet of protein tries. How many have you tried? I agree that unjury unflavored was the best. I could use it in things like milked down cream of wheat and not taste it too much. (As has been said here very wisely, unflavored does not mean no flavor.) As far as the made drinks, I really like the EAS Low Carb drink. I'm not fond of chocolate but was able to drink their version. It really is hit or miss. There are tons out there. While you are on full liquid try not to fuss to much about calories or carbs (just my advice) and concentrate more on making these days as easy as you can. It was also the advice of the program I'm in.

Never heard this before and I'm sure I've done this many times. I thought that if you were taking calcium citrate it didn't matter, that the acid was necessary for calcium carbonate. Would like to know the reason for this and if others have been told this rule. As I said, I know I've been breaking it a lot so if it's true, very glad to know now rather than 5 years from now!

Did everything else go down and stay down the rest of the day? Were you able to eat other "real" foods? My frustration is that I have no pattern. None. I thought I'd be able to know when I could eat, what I could eat. Nope. Changes every day. Most days I eat better at night. Tonight I'm not at all interested in food and will have to force a bit. Just no rhyme or reason for me.

Keep taking it. We were told at the free seminar to get on it immediately if we were serious about following through w/ the program as the biotin takes 6 months to really impact you. In theory, if you start right away, by the time you get through surgery and to the window where your hair falls out, it will be in full effect. I did buy it and started taking it but admit that I wasn't religious about it until about 1 month before surgery. One thing I've noticed is that while my hair is thinning (not horrible but noticeable to me) my nails are still needing trimmed every week. I don't like long nails. It seems odd to me that my nails continue to grow at the same rate while my hair is taking the brunt of the starvation diet. I would so love it to have been the other way around.

For those interested in getting a medic alert this is the text we were given: On the front: Medical Alert (details on back) NO NG On the back: Gastric Path Altered (VGS) Vertical Gastric Sleeve Most of them have enough space for additional information if you have more details.

My old college roomie used to walk to McD's for a Big Mac. Five minutes after she got home, all was well. But alas, those days are over.....

Are you taking liquid motrin? I used to take an ibuprophen tylenol cocktail for my knees when I was going out for the day and every single doctor I've seen has told me absolutely not. And the tylenol is like taking a skiddle and hoping for relief. I've never had a kidney infection but my sweetie thought he did a couple of years ago. The doctor walked into the little ER room and he said "I think I have a kidney infection". The doctor looked at him and said "you're sitting up. You don't have a kidney infection".

I had two bad days with constipation and decided it was not something I wanted to deal with. Who wants to trade being fat for horrible hemorrhoids? So I stocked up on the Miralax and accepted it as being at least an every other day thing. Then I spoke with a friend from college I'd not talked to for a year. She had gastric bypass and suggested I start taking MegaRed. I'm not suggesting anyone take this stuff w/out checking with their doctor. And if you have allergies, know that it's a fish oil. But this stuff has worked great for me and I believe in the power of Omega 3 so it's a win-win. It's Omega 3 Krill oil in small pills that are easy to swallow. I take one a day. It's been 2 weeks Miralax free. It's not that I minded the miralax, but I think this is a more beneficial mix for me so just thought I'd put this out there for those who have the chronic problem. Might be a fix for someone else too.

Yea, those Bariatric Advantage babies came back up as fast as they went down. Maybe faster! I'm trying both suggestions here. I know Celebrate is a good brand and since I'm in this for the long haul, I might as well put my head down and find one that works well for me. Thanks.

Thank you! I think I will try both of these suggestions. It sounds like I can get them both down and I don't mind experimenting a bit with a Walmart type brand so there's not too much money involved. You know, I don't know why, but whenever I split a pill I choke on it. I think it's in my mind.

That's what I thought but I asked my dietitian and they said that as long as it was made with milk it was fine. I had it several times and it didn't trigger any acid. My acid trigger was Peanut Butter. I rue the day I put that in my mouth. I've had acid reflux ever since........and I don't even like peanut butter. I took it because my blood sugar had done a big dip. Turned out, I was the big dip.

Isn't it extra dangerous to be taking motrin? That's ibuprofen and a big time no-no in our program. Is it okay in yours? I've seen several people here post about taking it, one who took it on the way home from surgery! We were told it's worse than aspirin for causing stomach bleeds. Don't get me wrong, I know you were in a world of hurt but just would hate for you to cause yourself harm with a med that can chew your stomach up. Feel better.

I can't find the thread but I was asking for an easy to swallow multi and someone (thank you) suggested I try the Celebrate Capsules. The ones she suggested require that you take it 3 times a day so not sure if they are the same ones. If they go down well, I don't mind the 3 times a day. I'd appreciate knowing what you think of them once you get them. I'm having a hard time finding one beyond one-a-day that doesn't make me sick. I can stand 1/2 of a Celebrate chewable so I'm doing that right now. If you are good with the Walgreens one, maybe you could get the individual supplements for A, D, and B1. There's actually a monthly for D that should clear that issue up. I've taken 1 monthly since surgery and it went down okay. I take a B multi occasionally (about twice a week). B's are Water soluble so you don't have to worry about too much. Not sure you can buy just A. Oh, also, are the Wallgreens ones about the same size as the Celebrate chewables? Or are they smaller?

I've never been a gassy person. Never. No burps. No toots. Well, occasionally, but very infrequent. I have never been able to understand that "pull my finger" thing. I thought it was ridiculous. No one could really do that on command. Well, I could now. If you pulled my finger at 5:50 a.m. It's just one of those things I've noticed. Pretty much from the day I started back on full food I start my day off with a toot. I was taking an OTC acid reducer before surgery so I don't think that's the difference. And it never happened while on liquids or puree. The funny thing about it is that it's exactly the same every day. One and done. Okay, kids, tomorrow we'll discuss my new found ability to burp.