TijuanaPlication

Dr Roger Ackroyd in Sheffield does VSG @ BMI 30. The costs I got from www.wlsgroup.com last year were £8995. I think he's the only surgeon in the UK who operates @ BMI 30. You've also got Dr Toon Sonneville who does VSG in Belgium for £7995 (again last summer's prices) in Brussels (handy for the Eurostar). You can get initial surgery consults in London for Belgium though. Mexico seems to have a universal BMI 30 requirement for VSG. Good luck!

That's cool. I'm gonna have to get more into sparkpeople! BTW the link works fine.

I had my plication at BMI 30, which seems to be the lowest BMI people operate on (both Mexico and Belgium operate at 30). I was told that if I weighed in at BMI 29.9 it wasn't going to happen, no way, no how. I tried chugging Water just to ensure it was BMI 30 but kept having go to the bathroom, so don't bother with that technique. Just make sure you qualify before paying your deposit, as I gained ~30lbs in 2 months (I'd just crashed out of doing WW and another diet for 12 months) and assumed the weight increase would continue, but it seemed to top out at the BMI 30 mark but I was scared of going higher. I was very borderline and it's not a game worth playing, so make sure you're really eligible. Note I'm not advocating gaining to qualify though, if you're at a BMI of 27 stay where you are. The weight doesn't just magically drop off and you still need to work hard at diet and exercise. BTW on the morning of surgery they were debating my BMI (it comes out differently on different sites), but I'd worked it out on http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ which puts your BMI lower than the calculator on alli website. They were threatening to band me!! BTW you can get a gastric balloon at BMI 28. Success, I understand, can be limited but you could investigate it. All the best! TJP

Why not wait until after surgery until you know how you're feeling. Why give yourself the extra pressure?

I'm pretty sure it's BMI 30 in Mexico. It was 30 for GPS.

5.5 months for me. I lost only 17lbs and really don't feel much restriction (didn't after one month). I'm now kicking the exercise into high gear and am hoping that'll help. I'm pondering band over plication too, I know that band has a lot off drawbacks, but I don't really know what else is available for revision -supposedly everything I know - but I'm not prepared to be the first GPS to VSG person!!

My surgery and recovery was also a bit of a vacation. I stayed in hospital for 3 nights and then flew from San Diego to Las Vegas. I did get pain, but the meds did a good job of taking care of that and being in Vegas forced me to walk LOTS (I got blisters in boots that had long since been broken in). Plication is lower risk for complications though.

FatToPhat summed up my sentiments well, pretty much everything below goes for me too.

I'm 5.5 months out and I feel very much like I did before. I have some restriction, but not as much as I expected. It's back to good ol' diet and exercise for me, but I'm hoping this will prevent the usual regain. I'll have to see in 3 or 4 months time where I am.

Hi Lmom, I feel similar to you. I feel I can eat a lot more than I should. Although Hiip (a VSGer) on verticalsleevetalk is struggling (and another VSGer a while back was also saying she should could eat too much too, but I don't remember who). Anyway, this does happen to some sleevers too. What people are seeming to say is that you really gotta work to get the weight off, but that the upside of this surgery is that it'll help you KEEP the weight. If that's all I get then I'll take it, but I'd expected more help with losing. I re-started WW one month post op and it felt no easier than before. I've now decided to kick the exercise into high gear as that helps curb my appetite, so I'm off to work out now. Good luck!

Congrats on your weight loss so far, that's awesome! I joined sparkpeople.com a week ago today and I'm feeling very motivated since then. It seems really good, with lots of mini goal setting to keep you focussed and moving forward. It's a huge site, so I haven't navigated my way round the half of it yet. I'm feeling really positive since I joined though. I've bought a new pedometer (the WW ones I had were useless) and a new Garmin heart rate monitor (my old one died end of last year). I'm just gonna get serious on the tracking (steps, exercise, water and food) Sparkpeople has lots of success stories which are really uplifting, so I certainly recommend spending some time on there and signing up. I'm off to go do some Stepping. Good luck - you can do this, you just need to keep going!!

Try sparkpeople.com I signed up to it last weekend when someone posted on here about it. I'm feeling pretty motivated using it (tracking exercise, diet, water, steps, etc). There are some pretty inspirational stories on there too. All the best.

Good luck and I hope you have an easy recovery.

Good luck for your upcoming surgery!

Hey that's awesome. I've just re-started doing Step. I haven't lost much, but my DH commented last night that I look a lot better than pre-surgery. It's summer and it's most definitely time to seriously get moving!

You just reminded me - I had the complete opposite. I was due to be operated on at 10:00 but they took me in at 08:30 (I'd stayed overnight). The surgery co-ordinator nearly fainted when I came out, as they'd not got round to taking payment from me thinking that I was going in later, LOL!!

Forgot to say good luck, I'm sure you won't need it though.

Yeah, it becomes so much more real when you've got the IV in your arm! We look forward to hearing from you post op.

Hi Chimera, congrats on your decision. All the best for your surgery. You sound like you have a really positive mindset!

Joined sparkpeople.com earlier this week following a recommendation from someone on verticalsleevetalk.com Anyway, not fully into the site just yet (it'll take me a while to get used to navigating it comfortably), but it's motivating me already!! I have my new pedometer coming tomorrow (I don't like WW pedometers, sadly I have 2) and I'm contemplating getting a heart rate monitor too (the Garmin 305 is tempting me, as my Polar one has given up the ghost). Anyway, summer's here and I'm re-doubling my efforts!

Anesthetic makes you more prone to deep vein thrombosis/clots. IIRC I got mine the night before (checked in a night early) and I wore them the 3 nights post op I spent in hospital. I was flying the day I was discharged (again DVT risk) so they wanted me to keep wearing them, but they were so tight they were actually painful (left awful red marks if they bunched up), so I wore flight socks as soon as I got out. I guess the compression must somehow prevent the blood from pooling if get a clot. Wikipedia's not explicit but it says re flight socks the following: The results showed that asymptomatic DVT occurred in 10% of the passengers who did not wear compression tights. The group wearing compression hosiery had no DVTs. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_vein_thrombosis#Compression_stockings

I showered in hospital the day after surgery. BTW see the link here http://www.verticals...7979#entry97979 for Dr Watkins GPS discharge instructions.

I'm so sorry to hear about your problems. The only revision I might contemplate would be duodenal switch (but I'm 'only' in the overweight category so this'd only be theoretical contemplation on my part). You've seriously got to research if you do want it, as it's a serious op and you need to be committed to taking numerous vitamins and 100g protein/day if you're a lady (more for guys). To qualify the BMI is 35 with 2 co-morbities or BMI 40. There's more info here http://www.obesityhe...fore-you-chose/ Don't bother with the ROSE/POSE technique or StomaphyX as I hear people only lose ~20lb and then regain it (they staple the inside of your stomach with a device through your throat). I've been pondering band over plication too (I'm guessing band over sleeve could be an option too), but you say previously had the band so I won't go any further on the subject of erosions, slippage, port flips, the elusive sweet spot, etc! Info on the 5 day pouch test is available on youtube on people's experiences, although info on what it involves is here and http://www.5daypouchtest.com/ I sincerely wish you the best and don't give up... keep searching until you find something that works for you.

Hi Randy, sorry you're having such a rough time. Congratulations on the amazing weight loss though. How about trying something like runny scrambled eggs (add plenty of milk) and just nibble at that. I'm sure you'll start feeling a lot better very soon and your appetite will increase and you'll reminisce about the days when you could eat so little. Relax and take it easy, you've had major surgery so get plenty of R&R until you're feeling better, which will roll around soon enough and this'll just become a distant memory. Hang in there and remind yourself why you went for this surgery. There are so many people on here saying how they 'LOVE' their sleeve, so you just gotta wait a little longer until you also feel that way. All the best!

Hey, I totally understand you feeling bad, but the point here is you didn't give up. The band didn't work out but you had the strength and determination to try something else. I think you'll just have to hang in there and add patience to your personality strengths. It's also recommended that you measure yourself when you're not losing lbs as you may be losing inches.