JoanieW

Most of what to eat and when is decided by your physician. I had Dr. Watkins, and he required one week of liquids preop and 800 calories, but I think for a higher BMI it was two weeks on liquids before the surgery. Liquids are anything you can sip through a straw. So, you could mix soup in a blender. One thing I liked was to whip up a protein smoothie with cottage cheese. It took away some of the sweetness and was very good. I think some other doctors want you on just liquids. You also need to be around 60-65 gm of protein a day and 60 oz of fluids. The first week after my surgery, I was on one week of liquids (sip through a straw type) and two weeks of mushies which is any food that is mushy, i.e. scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, etc. I don't know that I have any advice for preop surgery other than to follow your doctor's recommendations. Postop diet is a little hard, because mushies go through you pretty fast, as do liquids, so you need to eat a little more often. Keep in mind, you will get hungry, but are easily satisfied on less. I now understand why this is called a tool. You still have to watch what you eat, because you can put a lot of ice cream and potato chips in that little stomach. But it's not the same hunger as before, and it's a lot more manageable and easily satisfied. I think the best part of this is that once I have lost all the weight, It will be easier to keep it off. Postop, I didn't have any pain or gas, and I think that was thanks to Dr. Watkins. There must be something he does differently, but I'm not sure. I hope that's what you wanted to know. Let me know of any other questions you might have. So I guess you decided on the plication?

Hi Lguidry, I'm sorry to be late in posting, but I haven't been on here for a few days. I am doing great. I'm down 27 pounds since my preop diet. My surgery was on Aug.6. I think my weight loss has slowed down a little because I came off of one of my blood pressure pills, and it was a diuretic. But just being able to come off my BP meds is great news! I'll be taken off the other one soon, and it's a diuretic as well. I've gone from 210 to 183 in two months, just 33 more to go. I feel good and no more joint pain. Let me know if there are any specific questions you have.

Hi Karen. I had my surgery on Aug. 6, and I'm doing very well. I've lost 24 pounds including the one week preop diet I was on. Unfortunately, I didn't lose any last week. You will sometimes hit a stall. If you click on Dr. Watkins' name in one of his posts, you can read everything he has written regarding the plication. That will give you a lot of information. Joanie

Welcome, KKD. I'm sorry, I don't know of any doctors in NC that do this procedure; however, I did travel to Cincy from GA to get my plication done with Dr. Wakins. My surgery was on Fri., and we left the next day and drove home seven hours. Dr. Watkins and his staff have stayed in touch, and I was able to have my barium swallow (required as a followup by Dr. W.) here, so I haven't had to go back. I'm sure Dr. W. will be along and answer your questions about the fundoplication. If you choose to go to Cincy, you will be in good hands.

Thanks, Letme. I wanted to lose 60 pounds, so I have 36 more to go. Hopefully that will be even less when I weigh myself on Sat. I'm ashamed to say, I haven't been doing very much exercise. I walk in the morning sometimes, but I could do a lot better. I just hate to exercise.

Rain, you won't be disappointed. He's a wonderful doctor.

Congratulations on your weight loss! With a BMI of 32.9, that's amazing. It looks like you're living up to your name. :-)

Letmeeatcake (love your name), I suggest you click on Dr. Watkins name in his last post and read all his posts. I think you will find a lot of your questions have already been answered by him, and you can trust what he says. Let me know if you have any others about my personal experience, and I will be happy to answer them.

I have had great weight loss. As of last Sat. and including my one week preop diet, I have lost 24 pounds. You are right, the journey is both psychological and physical. I now understand why this is just a tool. You still have to watch what you eat to get the weight off. You don't want to be eating chips, ice cream, and Cookies. The good part is that I am satisfied on a lot less, and I think I can keep the weight off a lot easier than in the past. Thank you for the well wishes.

I don't know what size my hernia was, but it was fixed during surgery. I don't see why a large hernia couldn't be fixed, as well. Are there any doctors closer to you where you can get a second opinion?

Hi Letme. Welcome to our little corner of the world. When is your surgery?

Mari, I know we will. And a much healthier one too. My starting BMI was 36. I'm now down to 31.9.

Hi MW. A loss of 22 pounds in six weeks is amazing. The more you have to lose, the faster it comes off. I have 34 more to goal. Keep up the good work!

Hi Iguidry. I can only speak for myself as to why I chose the plication over the VSG. It was hard for me to live with the fact that I would be losing 85% of my stomach. I was also afraid of having a leak. Once I started researching the plication, I made my decision right away without hesitation. It has the same EWL as VSG and it's safer. You have to write down what's important to you, maybe do a pros and cons list. Plication pros for me were: Safer, great weight loss, less time on a liquid diet, faster healing. Cons: Cannot eat large meals. Oh wait a minute. I guess that could be a pro also. VSG pros: Great weight loss. Cons: The whole pro/con thing with not being able to eat large meals and staples. There is also the debate on grhelin, but Dr. Watkins cleared that up in his latest post. My BMI was 36, and I have lost 24 pounds. My BMI is now 31.9. By the way, I don't know anything about the other doctors you mentioned, but I think Dr. Watkins is amazing and has great followup care.

6 weeks=24 pounds

Welcome aboard COGSP and congrats on your weight loss! It's funny that you are from Castle Rock. We just moved to GA from Colorado Springs. I really do miss CO.

Thank you, Dr. Watkins. I knew you would come through for us. I feel a lot better about my decision!

There have been some studies done on the GPS. One of them was for about three years, and you can find it at bariatrictimes.com. From that study, the EWL was comparable to VSG. There was another two-year study in Brazil. But you're right. We don't have enough data. I just knew that I couldn't do the VSG but I had to do something. This was a viable alternative for me. I had my surgery on Aug. 6, and I am down 21 pounds since my one week postop diet. I do get hungry, but not like I used to. It's not that all consuming hunger I used to get where I couldn't stop eating. I eat a very small amount, and I'm satisfied. I think your question about what happens to the bundled long term tissue is a good one and is a concern of mine. Since Dr. Watkins posts here from time to time, I hope he sees this and will give us his opinion. At the end, I have posted a copy of what Dr. Brad Watkins has had to say about the surgery. By the way, there are no staples, just sutures. #12 (permalink) 07-14-2010, 02:53 PM DrWatkins Registered User Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 25 Gender: Male City: Cincinnati State: OH Re: Calling all (TGVP) people!!! new procedure Gastric plication and gastric imbrication are describing the same operation. The ROSE procedure is an endoscopic stitching for gastric bypass patients that have regained weight due to stretching or dilation of the connection between the gastric pouch and the small intestine. As opposed to the sleeve gastrectomy whereby the stomach is made into a tube using staples (and the stomach is removed), the plication (or imbrication) creates a sleeve by folding the stomach in on itself and then stitching to keep it folded in on itself. Your entire stomach is still there, it's just folded in on itself with stitches to keep it there. No staples. No cutting. No stomach removal. I have not seen ghrelin studies on gastric plication but plication patients do describe profound appetite reduction and they get full on small amounts of food so it appears to be a very good weight loss tool. Ghrelin reduction comes mainly from pressure, stretching the wall of the stomach, which occurs when the stomach volume is smaller. Ghrelin appears to be a small part of a very complex appetite mechanism of which we only have the most superficial understanding. In my mind the only downside to the plication is that we just don't have that long-term data with hundreds of thousands of patients over ten to twenty years like we have with the bypass or the band. There is two year data out of Brazil that shows plication weight loss in the 60% excess weight loss at 2 years which compares favorably to other successful weight loss operations. We performed our 5th plication this morning. Three were band patients that converted to plication and two were primary plication patients (plication done as the original operation). To date, I have been very pleased with the satiety the plication causes and the associated weight loss. We call it the GPS (Gastric Plication Surgery). GPS is very different from the VBG (vertical banded gastroplasty) from years ago. VBG was simply stapling a small pouch in the upper part of the stomach. GPS (plication) creates a small tube out of the entire length of the stomach. Hope that helps Brad Watkins MD Gastric Plication Surgeon Cincinnati, OH

Sarah, I think your weight loss is awesome. It's been a month, and I am down 20 pounds. I'm losing slower than most, but maybe it's because I only need to lose 60 pounds. I have 40 to go. Somedays, I can barely eat anything and other days I can eat more. I think you're doing great!

Hi Lisa. I am one of Dr. Watkins' patients, and I didn't have to give myself a shot at all. I know they gave me an anticoagulation shot during surgery. Is it just you or do all Dr. Corvala's patients have to do that? I wish you weren't so miserable. It will pass soon enough. If you haven't already read it, Dr. Watkins addressed the problem with shoulder pain in one of these threads.

CK, congrats on the 33 pounds you've lost!

Hi Itsa. I am so sorry you are having a lousy time with your surgery. I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I had no problems, other than fatigue. Even so, I did have the same feeling of wishing I hadn't done it, but that will pass. I'm very happy now and am down 20 pounds. Looking forward to hearing from you, so keep us posted. Let us know if you have any questions.

They are great! Dr. Watkins has called to check on me, and Cookie, his nurse, checks in with me once a week still to see how I'm doing. I had to have a barium swallow just to check and make sure my new tummy is working properly. He placed the order for it. I could have gone back to Cincy and had it done there, but you don't have to. One of my incisions got a little red, and I told him that it just looked irritated because it was around my waistline. But he had me send a picture of it to him anyway, and he said all is well. I'm really glad I chose him.

Wow! Kamie that amount of weight loss in three weeks is incredible. Keep up the good work!

Lisa, you probably saw that Dr. Watkins has addressed this in the previous post. I don't understand why they are putting down the plication surgery like they are. All sorts of rumors are going around over there. I tried to explain what I new about plication, but they promptly told me that I was wrong, so I haven't gone back. Maybe a copy and paste of Dr. Watkins' reply would help. It's just common sense that why would doctors do this procedure and risk their reputations if the stomach was like a melon and the sutures were just going to pull through. In that same light, why wouldn't staples come through. Also, my mother had half her stomach removed in the 70s because of a HUGE ulcer that covered half of it. I don't know if they used staples then, but her surgery has done fine since then, and she is at a normal weight. She still eats very small portions. I remember the surgeons putting her on a liquid diet afterwords and telling her to only eat five or six small meals a day.