mi75

i have GERD and take a PPI twice a day for the past several years. my surgeon is very thorough and he really believes that once i have significant weigh loss my GERD will clear up. i carry all my weight up front and i often get asked 'when are you due"? i will be staying on the PPI for almost a year post op or until i lose around 70 lbs however long that takes. please share with me if you had GERD that cleared up. i have read stories about how it worsened. i would love some supportive documentation that shows i have a chance of this going away...

i do a liquid calcium which is really simple and good tasting, there is a brand that can be found at wal-mart, or multiple brands at the Vitamin shoppe. SO much simpler than adding yet another pill to my daily regimen...

i LOVE nectar products by Syntrax. awesome 'juice' type flavors that you mix with Water. sort of like a crystal lite drink. all sorts of good flavors. you can order a sampler pack online and try them all, pretty cheap too. i like Premier and get mine at Meijer I am excited to try Chike and get some coffee flavored going. i'm pre-op but supposed to be drinking two a day already and it is hard to find flavors i like.

I am wondering this question: I am big busted now (pre-op) and don't necessarily want to have implants done after my weight loss. I know I will require both ab work and some revision to the tata's...is possible for the plastic surgeon to just reduce and reshape??? I know many ladies lose their weight and then have implants, but I have never liked being a large-busted woman and I look forward to being a small cup size...

i also have barretts and my surgeon is ok going ahead with sleeve. because of my GI history i actually thought that RNY was my only option. when i met with my surgeon for my final appt, he and i had a lengthy talk about my options. he said i will stay on my PPI for a MINIMUM of 9-12 months post op and require some significant loss and then we'll try backing off the PPI and see what happens. i carry my weight ALL in front and he is fairly confident that when i lose the belly the reflux will naturally resolve. i am stepping out in faith here and trusting him. best of luck!

please post and give us an update! hoping you did well and surgery was a breeze!

i'm pre-op but i would think the same, just a stall...you are doing great btw! keep up your regimen and i agree with move more. try some completely NEW and different activity just to get a little muscle confusion going. best of luck!

it's tough because even though most of us have support of our spouses, we are still doing this alone... my hubs is awesome and super supportive, but i know that it is ME having the surgery, and i expect him to still want his food. AND POP. i have asked him to consider my needs the first month post-op and if he has a hankering for something like his fave takeout or a pop, to just go have it on his lunch without me, or out to dinner with one of our kids, and i will stay home. eventually i will have to face going out and such, but once i'm on foods again it will be easier. best of luck!

i have been having some small food celebrations and i plan a last food funeral the day or two prior to starting the 2 wk pre-op. even though i KNOW i can have most foods again, i am really approaching this as a NEW START and don't want to just resume eating junk, even in small amounts. i really plan to try and walk away from a lot of the stuff i eat now and start new, with eating real, whole foods as much as possible. so for me, a food funeral is hopefully really that and i am hopeful that i will be saying goodbye for good to most of the stuff that got me to where i am right now....and hello to healthy good nutrients, whole foods, fuel for my new body!

thanks for the info! good blogs, videos, etc are a great resource.

get Torani sugar free syrups in different flavors and stir in to your shakes get some nectar Protein drinks which you mix with Water and are sort of more like a crystal lite drink than a thick shake try some different high protein Soup broths like the chicken broth from Unjury- ONLY IF your doc allows it i would also really recommend you call the nurse at your surgeons office. we nurses usually have good experiences with prior patients that help us to teach other patients. i wish you luck, you are SO close! hang in there

i have had GERD for about 35 years, quite literally. i was about 5 or 6 when i remember seeing a pediatric GI doc for 'heartburn'. i have been on a PPI for about 20 years now and doing well. i also had barrett's lesions around 2006 but negative since then. my surgeon and I had a very long discussion about either surgery and i was all set to have RNY, but he really feels that I will be just as successful with VSG. I carry ALL my weight in the abdomen- i often get asked when i am due- and the surgeon says that once I lose my belly weight the reflux should pretty much be gone. since I take a HUGE dose of PPI (protonix 40-60 mg twice daily) now, I will stay on a high dose post op for several months until there is some good loss, then start to decrease it. my insurance only pays for ONE bariatric surgery in a lifetime so i am stepping out in HUGE faith and trusting him and his experience in this. i also know that this is a HUGE incentive for me to really stick to my diet and follow the rules to avoid any problems. best of luck!

it is great to read this post. I'm, still pre-op and will begin my 2 wk pre-op diet in a month. the reality of it all is starting to kick in. after reading all of these posts, it's great to see several people still saying IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT. that is huge to me. my health is so bad right now, and i am absolutely a food addict so moving ahead is very scary. knowing that in the end, no matter what is missed, people still would do it again is a huge motivator for me. thanks to everyone for their honest responses!

mine was very simple and i was pretty comfortable with it. my psych eval was a 2-visit deal. the first day i went she asked me about my medical history, my family history, if i had anxiety, depression, etc. also discussed medications, exercise regimen (NONE), support system. she gave me three or four little 'inventories' to fill out and bring back the next day. the inventories were a bulimia/anorexia type survey, an eating survey, and some sort of 27 question survey about the anxiety i had in certain scenarios, sleeping, etc. all very simple. i went back for my 2nd appt she looked it all over, asked me a few of the same questions from the first appt, and said i was approved and she would send a letter to my surgeon. she was really nice and told me that i seemed pretty 'normal' and that this is the best thing i could ever do for myself.

the nurse practitioner at my OB office has advised me that both she and the OB want me to stop my Yaz prior to surgery. They had another patient last year who took BCP and had WLS and ended up with a pulmonary embolism post-op. I am not worried about stopping it, I am more scared of a clot. I'm wondering how LONG it should be stopped to decrease my risk of PE? i'm a cardiac nurse and I have E.R. experience and have seen a few patients come in with a PE and it is very scary. I'm just seeking out other's experiences with stopping and how long, etc. I see my surgeon next week for my final apt and then I still have about 2 months of nutrition to go before I have my paperwork submitted to insurance, so surgery likely in July. Also, my surgeon requires Lovenox injections post op for 2 wks also. Obviously I will seek the advice of my surgeon but since I don't see him for a week i'm just more curious than anything to hear about how other docs handled this. thanks!!

i would recommend the P3 Snacks too. 13 grams of Protein and easy to eat while running around at work. also the Fage greek yogurts which i believe have a little more protein than others

generally just about ALL overweight people have enlarged or fatty liver. when you find a new surgeon you may want to discuss doing the pre-op diet a little longer than normally prescribed-if it's one week, go two, if it's two go 2.5, etc...the main effect of the pre-op diet is melting fat stores out of your liver and 'shrinking' it. that will help some, but like i said, if you are overweight, you have an enlarged liver. surgeons are generally prepared for that, and there is a surgical tool (looks sort of like captain hook's hand) that they can insert through one of the keyholes (the scope holes made during surgery) to hold your liver out of the way. i too would look around

i am tentatively either June 25th or 26th

i had mine a couple weeks ago. it was borderline and i still haven't gotten the official word if i need a cpap or not. i have average 2.3 episodes per hour but during my WHOLE 2 hrs of REM i had 15 during one of the hours. you need to average 5/hr to qualify for cpap... i am a light sleeper for most of the night because i have small kids constantly moving about, needing the potty, Water, cats chasing each other, etc. i constantly woke during the study because the little camera watching me was moving and i could hear the little motor in it! also they parked me right across from the desk which was ok but i was very conscious of it. that coupled with the fact that i DO have some level of apnea mean i am seriously sleep deprived.

also the series "Independent Lens" on PBS did a great weight loss show last month i think it was called 'all of me' or something similar. the entire show is fully uploaded on their website.

Fat Doctor on youtube...a FAB british show about weight loss surgeons. mostly RNY surgeries, a couple sleeves and a few lapbands. all around though a great show. really covers post op, eating, family, successes, etc. much better than my 600 lb life. youtube has the first four seasons totally uploaded and season 5 is coming in a couple months

measuring cups and spoons, plenty of cups with lids and NO STRAWS (drinking from straw post op can pull air into your gut and make it really painful), small bowls with lids to pack future meals for work. plenty of variety of Protein shakes, your tastebuds may change post op and what was good now won't be anymore.

prayers for you for a wonderful success with no complications! i was told to bring non-slip footies/slippers, toothbrush/paste, lotion, chapstick, hairbrush, and anything i felt necessary to get through 48 hr admission. best of luck!!!

i was told to plan for 4 weeks off, but could go back after 3 with heavy restrictions if i felt up to it. i have heard from MANY people that 3 seems to be the magic number, that at 3 wks out you feel pretty normal and back to living, and you are losing, and starting to eat, and have some semblance of life again.

What is your GI history? Just curious...i want the sleeve but with a recent barrett discovery, the doc is recommending bypass. I have had GERD since childhood and was formerly diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus in 2003. I have had multiple bleeding ulcers and barrett's lesions biopsied. The issue for ME is with bypass your pouch stomach is the only part that can be scoped in and EGD. the rest of your stomach sits there, functioning and secreting gastric enzymes, but is sealed shut. the only way to get in and see around is an actual surgery to cut open the stomach and examine it. i have had too many problems to take the chance of just letting it sit there untouched. i would have to have surgeries about every 2 years to look inside the stomach. this is ME. everyone is so different. bypass can be a great choice even with barretts, but i also have stomach history which adds to the equation...