Foxbins

I am a sleeve revision to bypass and I'm eating things I know I won't be able to eat for a long time based on my sleeve recovery--fresh cherries (they will be out of season by the time I can eat them) coconut, corn, and celery (too much Fiber, not enough vitamins) and panko shrimp (too much fat). Oh, and toast. It took me a couple of years to be able to eat toast. Other than that, I'm just eating my normal diet. I'm also wondering about my presurgical protocol. My surgeon didn't tell me liquids only the day before surgery like some others here. Guess he's ready for whatever might be in there.

2 hours ago, MaybeMeow said:

PS: I feel a little guilty speaking about food when I know some of you are struggling with fluids BUT I am also your future so I want to give you hope. Last night I ordered out for the first time since pre-op and I ordered a piece of plain mahi mahi with lemon. It was lousy. Dry and fishy tasting so after one bite I tossed it. Then I spied by daughter's scallops. She did not want to finih them. I took two and weighed them. 2 oz. I rinsed them off as they were coated in butter. Then I ate them tiny bite by tiny bite. THEY WERE SO DELICIOUS. And they went down like s DREAM! I felt the same as I did after having an egg the first time... but even BETTER. REAL food. I kept waiting for a price to pay. No price. So I saved the other two for lunch today. Put them in the toaster oven under broil for 3 minutes. JUST AS DELISH. And I can make scallops. So this feels GREAT!! Went down so easily much better than the ground chicken. So... GET YA SOME SCALLOPS when you're trying meat Proteins. The End.

When my sleeve was new, I lived on scallops. So soft and easy to digest. My nutritionist was not happy. She kept repeating, " But there's nothing in them!" No, there's no Omega -3s like in fish, but there is no fat and there's a lot of Protein packed into the deliciousness. I kept eating them and did just fine. Enjoy! Oh, and I had good luck eating shrimp, too. Just don't overcook them.

2 hours ago, Phoenix20 said:

yeah, that isn't a terrible stat but it worries me. i think, at the end of the day, that's a risk worth taking. my surgeon wasn't concerned but we can discuss it again. vsg is the best option for my personal case based on a few factors and i know there is no surgery that doesn't carry some risk. i have also heard of people who developed GERD post vsg but it wasn't permanent and/or it was successfully treated by medicine. so that's the hope. thanks!

Even with the possibility of GERD if I had it to do over again I'd still get a sleeve. It worked wonderfully well for me.

2 hours ago, Phoenix20 said:

This is one thing that really scares me about getting the sleeve. i dont have gerd now and and im getting second thoughts...

Stats say 20-30% of sleevers develop GERD afterward who didn't have it before. Talk to your surgeon and see what they say about it.

I'm another sleeve to bypass revision due to GERD, which I didn't have before my sleeve. I would not have LINX, too similar to LapBand for me. When will doctors figure out that foreign bodies in the GI tract eventually cause problems? Like Tracyringo I'm on Medicare and it took a week for them to approve the surgery and another 2 weeks to get it scheduled. I had an upper GI, EGD, manometry, and a BRAVO test (yup, have GERD, told them that without the test) but other than those to nail down the diagnosis I haven't had any other test or diets or hoops to jump through. I'm scheduled for Monday 6/29.

Because your revision is for medical reasons, I would expect the process to go quickly for you, too. Good Luck!

Mine (I've had 3) have not been the least bit painful. They put in an IV, lay you on your left side, put a block on your mouth so you don't involuntarily bite down on the instrument, and shoot a sedative in the IV. When you wake up it's done. Nothing hurts.

2 hours ago, Solo4ever said:

it helps to know others figure it out. I am kinda relieved im not in a relationship since that seems so stressful during this process.

So this is your second time through the process... is it easier now that you know what expect...or worse because you know what to expect?

It's a little bit worse, but not because of what I know to expect. Surgical recovery the first time was uneventful and weight loss was easy. It's worse because I never wanted a bypass, and I don't want one now but there is nothing else that will take away this GERD and I can't live like this. I burp all the time and regurgitate half-digested food and wake up in the middle of the night with acid in my mouth. Plus I'm at my goal weight and I'm afraid I will lose more, or worse, it will be easier to eat with the bypass after the GERD is gone and I'll gain weight, or for some unknown reason, the GERD doesn't go away and then I have a bypass plus GERD. Basically I'm anxious about what my outcome will be in 9-12 months.

Please don't worry about the surgery or the recovery. The hospital will take good care of you, and you will not be bedridden after you come home. Your stomach will hurt but it's not awful, more like two days after doing a lot of situps. Keep walking and start strength training as soon as you can. Your body will consume muscle as well as fat, and it's easier to preserve some of what you have than develop new muscle mass.

Check in here after your surgery, I'll be around until the 29th.

6 hours ago, Solo4ever said:

My surgery date is June 24th, and its getting very real. This whole ride has been so stressful! My original date was April 1st, and like most of us that was cancelled. I am stuck in Michigan which was one of the last states to loosen regulations. By the time they did that, my work decided to tell me that I only had a couple weeks left and I would be laid off permanently!! My worst fear! To go thru all of this just to lose my insurance! I was actually calling out of state to Texas to switch surgeons to a state that was already scheduling. By the grace of the Lord that same day my surgeon called and had a date open on the 24th! I was so excited! and 3 days later was laid off. with 2 weeks to my surgery I was frantic and scraping together money to pay for the Cobra insurance(oh my lord that's expensive), but I didn't care what the cost, it was cheaper than paying out of pocket. I just felt so stuck. How was I supposed to get and take time off for medical? What would my chances of getting good insurance be ? So I decided to wait it out. Doing the surgery on Cobra, and heal, and then job hunt. I hope unemployment doesn't take as long as they are saying.

Been on a 2 week liquid diet of Protein Shakes and clear fluids. I have not been perfect, but not bad either. I haven't lost a ton of weight from it as I was already eating low carb well before starting. My high weight was 310 back in March, and I am at 289 as of today. ABout 5 pounds of it is from the liquid diet. I am 5'4 and 41 years old.

Sorry this is long. I am doing this kinda alone. My parents and both my kids know, they are adult girls over 20. But I live alone- I have been alone for a very long time and quite enjoy my solace. But I it is odd to not have someone to talk to about this stuff. My kids are helpful but they are young and wrapped up in their own lives. I can say my dad has been my rock though. Wondering if anyone else lives completely alone like me- I never even get visitors and I have zero social life. Is it hard for others to stay accountable somedays because there is no one to see it? I consider myself very positive and very independent and strong, but wow sometimes I have to apologize to myself and ease up I suppose.

I'm alone. My parents are dead, I'm divorced, no kids. My sister lives in Texas, my friends are scattered all over the US. I had sleeve surgery in 2011 and I recovered alone from that, too. Don't worry, you'll do fine. You will be accountable not only to yourself but also to your surgical team and to the folks here on BP, if you want. I posted quite a lot in the months after my sleeve, and then gradually fell away. Now a revision to bypass for GERD and I'm back. I'm scheduled for the 29th.

1 hour ago, Round2newme said:

Had my pre-op surgery meeting with my doc today. I am scheduled for surgery on June 29. I am excited and scared and nervous and worried and everything. I literally feel everything right now lol. I am revising bad to bypass anyone out there went thru a band revision to bypass

My surgery is on the 29th, too! I'm revising from a sleeve to a bypass for GERD.

I think the issue is two-fold. First, many overweight people drink a lot of their calories, so a prohibition against carbonated beverages should cut their intake of those. Secondly, and this is more in line with your desire to drink the diet stuff, is that for some reason, carbonation doesn't feel good in a sleeve or a pouch. There's no reason I can't drink a soda, but I become a burp machine if I do and the feeling in my sleeve is usually uncomfortable. That said, once or twice a year I have a root beer. Mostly what I drink now is Crystal Light.

I didn't tell anyone about my sleeve surgery in Mexico 9 1/2 years ago except my physician. I'm revising to a bypass due to GERD on 6/29. GERD gave me an esophageal stricture which is being repaired at the same time the bypass is done. I'm at my goal weight, so no one should notice anything. Your surgery is no one's business but yours, and your decision to tell or not is yours as well. I'm just a very private person and don't like people asking what I consider to be personal questions.

It took about a week for me to be approved. My surgeon's office called on Monday and my surgery is scheduled for 6/29 at 5:30 a.m.

Thank you all for the reassurance. I picked my surgeon because he's the expert in this area for complex foregut problems. He's not really a people person. I'm hoping that post-op, the dietician can help.

I am just worrying that I will go through all this and 1) still have reflux and 2) will have malabsorption issues and lose too much. I lost five pounds over a weekend in December when I had the flu and couldn't keep anything down.

I had my sleeve done in 2011, reached my goal weight of 138, and have maintained it since. I developed GERD about two years after the sleeve surgery. I've been on omeprazole since, the max dosage the past two years. GERD gave me an esophageal stricture which causes food and liquids to regurgitate back into my mouth after swallowing. It's truly gross to have to repeatedly reswallow the same mouthful of food. Sometimes things get stuck and I have to vomit them up. I've had a couple of endoscopies, a BRAVO study, and esophageal manometry. The manometry shows I have achalasia (impaired swallowing) too, not surprising when you only have a 12.5 mm wide esophagus. It was dilated during an endoscopy, but shrank back down fairly quickly. My surgeon wants to do a Heller myotomy to fix the stricture but a common side effect of myotomy is GERD. So he has to do something about the GERD, too, and that has to be some kind of bypass. Since I'm at goal weight with a BMI of 21, I don't have much spare poundage to lose. Plus I'm 65 and don't want to end up one of those "frail elderly" people who can't carry groceries or walk very far. I am hoping that my surgeon will make the very shortest bypass limb he can.

Approval came a week after submission so I'm scheduled for June 29. No preop diet required. It's all happening a little fast and I'm a little freaked out. I think I've forgotten all the food stages :-). Support would be appreciated.

I had to drink a gallon of Nulytely. All the horror stories about the prep on the internet made me put off having one for a decade. Honestly, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I drew a line on a clear glass and drank one every 15 minutes. Mostly I didn't like being up until 2 a.m. to finish the prep. The colonoscopy itself was fine, I was sedated with propofol, recovered about 20 minutes after I woke up, and took a taxi home.

I'm nine years out and only my physician and a friend who was considering the sleeve for herself know I had surgery. I've always thought that my medical history is private and should remain private.

22 minutes ago, GreenTealael said:

I also read (somewhere,sorry i can't remember) that there are pyloric preservation style RNYs where the intestines are rerouted and connect just below the sphincter.

Perhaps that's an option also, IDK

I don't think it's an option in my case--to cure my GERD the vagus nerve would have to be cut, and then the pylorus won't work right without the acid. That's why we're looking a fix higher up. I think he's going for a modified Hill repair.

Thank you so much for your comments, Greentealael. That article is excellent, I just wish the study authors had done a longer follow-up than six months. It looks like the failures had low manometry pressures; I don't know mine, but I will mention this paper to my surgeon. He was not planning on using the Ligamentum Teres. He did say that RNY could be done if his sleeve preservation surgery didn't work.

I had my sleeve done and a hiatal hernia repair in 2011 and reached goal in about 11 months. I lost 100 lbs and have kept it off ever since. Fast forward nine years and I have esophagitis, an esophageal stricture, another hernia, and crazy bad GERD. My surgeon has presented me with two options. Option one, keep my sleeve as it is, but partially cut through the muscles of the esophagus to ease the stricture and then fold some of the stomach inward (like rolling the top of a sock inside itself) to keep the acid in my stomach. Or Option two, convert to a RnY. I love, love, love my sleeve because afterwards I had no hunger. None. And it's still gone, I can go all day if I am busy without eating and only remember if I start to get lightheaded or cranky.

So, people who lost their hunger with VSG and had to convert to RnY, did your hunger stay lost? If you were at goal, how much weight did you lose? My BMI is 22, I can't lose too much more.

I am dreading another surgical recovery and those awful Protein Drinks, too.

Thanks for reading!

My ketolorac was a sublingual tablet so avoided irritating the stomach tissue. I am assuming that if your surgeon is prescribing it, he or she has weighed the benefits vs the risks. If you are concerned you should ask about it.

Mine was a 36 French, but depending on how closely the surgeon staples to the bougie, the size might not be exact.

Are you sure it was the sausage? eggs are always iffy for me. Sometimes (mostly sunnyside up) they are okay but other times they come right back up, or make me feel so awful I swear off them for months. I've also found that I can eat newly cooked rice or noodles, but leftovers are a no-no. You'll soon figure out what to avoid--I tried things and if they didn't work in the beginning, I kept testing until it seemed clear I was never going to tolerate some things well. I couldn't eat chicken until about year six, and only dark meat. I still can't eat most bread, it just balls up inside and feels terrible. Strangely enough, toast is okay.

On ‎5‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 3:09 PM, othella2 said:

How you do that??

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If people asked how I was losing weight, I told the truth--eating less, mostly Protein, and exercising more. My medical issues are private. Nobody but my neurologist and my ex-husband knows I have MS, either.

Strangely (or not) I am still a foodie and search our foodie destinations. I like to take a local cooking class or go to the night markets. When I went to Singapore (incredibly delicious food) I got takeout from the hawker stalls and one takeout equaled three meals--dinner and Breakfast and lunch the next day. I save a ton on food now while traveling because I don't eat much and I don't bring Snacks the way I did when I was fat. I eat a lot of appetizers, or Soup, as my main course in restaurants. Plus, it is so much easier to walk around without carrying extra weight. I had to lug my suitcase up three flights of stairs in Seoul when the escalators weren't working, and I couldn't have done it 10 years ago. I've gone to Asia a bunch, but also scuba diving in the Caribbean, trekking in Costa Rica, climbed Diamond Head in Hawaii, and a yoga retreat in Mexico where I could actually reach all my body parts in the poses. Adventures, no matter where, are easier without obesity issues getting in the way of having a good time.

Eight years out, only my physician knows.