JoanieW

Hello, QUESTION FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS HAD PLICATION... how does liquids go down for you and what stage are you at? Wondering if they go straight through (like can you drink a cup of coffee in 5 minutes if it isn't to hot?)

Is there such a thing as "guzzling" down a drink or will it be slow sipping from here on out?

Thanks for all your feedback and replies. My goal is to make a decision and schedule surgery for Sept/Oct.

Trying to think of everything else to ask. Anyone want to get me any more info on the day/life of a plication (GPS) patient? Looking for good & bad info.. We know it isn't really "bad" necessarily, just something to consider in the grand scheme of things.

Also, ladies, does any incensions show if you were a low cut top or is it all along the bra line? I live in a vacation area, and just need to prepare myself..

Hi Amy. I hesitated to respond because I don't think I'm the norm. I can take large gulps of drinks now that I couldn't before. I don't think I can down a cup of coffee in five minutes, but I don't think I ever have been able to do that.:thumbup: The other day, I was coming home from a store where I bought a 16 oz fusion drink and had drunk about 12 ounces by the time I got home, about 15 minutes. (note to self: If you change your mind about the flavor, make sure you pick up the sugar free. I thought it taste too good to be true).

A day in my life is no different than it ever was, except I have to plan ahead a little. I'm not on "regular food" yet, so if I get hungry I can't just run through a drive through like I used to. I am hungry about every two hours, but from what I"ve heard, that should get better. I have stopped at McDonald's once with my husband and I had yogurt, and I found out that a small smoothie there is made with yogurt and has only 210 calories and 2 gm of Protein. I did do that once.

You can't see the incisions unless you go topless.:confused1:

Hello all!

I am scheduled for the gastric plication surgery in Tijuana with Dr. Corvala on Aug 27th...anyone else?

Congratluations! I'm happy for you.

What is your preop diet like?

Thank you all so much for your well wishes! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Regarding the reversibility of the plication...

The simple answer is that, yes, the plication is reversible.

The more complicated answer is that it is not as simple as removing a hem and the fabric falls apart. The stomach is a wonderful living organ and we use third generation silk suture (Ethibond) that causes a little scar reaction so that the result is stronger than the suture alone.

Now, I don't imagine we will have people wanting to reverse the operation, but if someone did, the process would be to remove each stitch (laparoscopically) and that would take some time and there would be a risk for stomach perforation (small risk). If surgeons used Prolene suture (looks like fishing line), it would be easier to reverse but that is the problem. I've already seen reports of Prolene plications falling apart and the surgery has undone itself soon after the operation (not good).

Also, the imbrication and plication describes the same procedure where you stitch the stomach smaller with no stapling and no cutting. The good news is that your stomach is still there and you haven't burned any bridges - you could still have any other procedure down the road.

Hope that helps.

Brad Watkins, MD

Hi Dr. Watkins. Thanks for making things so clear and for actually responding.

I had a question posed to me today by a doctor, and he asked me won't the two sides that have been invaginated eventually stick together, making the surgery irreversible? Any comments on that? Thanks!!

That is great! I keep wondering if I will feel bad only being able to eat about a cup a time..but then I think NO ONE can eat without limits. There is always a stopping point. The food will always be there tomorrow. You can eat it all and still be thin-it might just be over a long period of time. ; ) Was it Ben Franklin who said "Eat to live dont live to eat." I wish I didnt think about food so much. My husband wishes he didnt have to "waste time eating". Of course he is thin and eats whatever he want, which is Never low fat or diet anything! Seems to be this surgery is about the best one can get if they arent naturally skinny-still getting to eat good food but in small portions. I've been really trying to "stop when I can feel full." But then I am hungry an hr later. I can also eat alot! That will hold me, but I think Ill be forever fat. I think whatever it takes to hold me is still too much for my wimpy metabolism. You have made the decision to be thinner and healthier for the rest of your life!

Amy, I definitely made the right decision and have no regrets, even if I do get hungry. According to CK, it should get better for me. I'll keep all of you posted on that.

Congratulations...you will do awesome!!!!

It's been 4 weeks for me, and since surgery I'm down 23lbs....I feel like a normal person, eat normal foods, and feel full with a cup or so of food. I actually eat like all of those "skinny biotches" who used to look down their nose at me for eating a full entree......

I try to stick to higher Protein meals, but also eat rice and Pasta....I get full faster and am journaling on livestrong.com/myplate. I keep my calories around 800/day.

Welcome aboard! I love this tool!

Ck, thanks for the tip on livestrong.com. I went in and added up all my calories for the day, and realized I had eaten more than I thought, 1100. I was thinking it was around 900. Great reality check.

Joanie,

I had the growling for the first 2 weeks...and LOUD!!! hear accross the room growling....it has gone down, my stomach still growls occasionally.

What I haven't felt is that anxious, red in the face, shaky hunger.....I stay pretty full, and I don't get the "need to eat" desperation I used to get. As a matter of fact my husband sometimes reminds me to eat, or he'll say you need to eat, because he can see my face turning red (always a sign I needed to eat, I also have low blood sugar).

Last night after workout, I was starving...I hadn't felt that since before surgery, so I made myself a taco, and heated up some soup.....I saw my husband grinning but didn't pay attention. I ate 1/2 the taco and a few sips of Soup, and marched back into the kitchen....my husband just started laughing, he's all "I knew you weren't going to eat ALL that, but I knew you were starving!"....amazing!

before I would have eaten 3 tacos, the whole thing of soup, and still looked around for something else.....

So even when I am hungry, it doesn't take much to fill up!

It gets easier.....

Thanks CK. That is so encourgaging to know.

Hi Everyone that has had Plication or does this surgery, this is probably a DUH-stupid question, but I feel the need to ask it anyway. Do any of you still have the shakey, hunger that feels like low blood sugar? Or is that what supressing the Ghrelin hormone does, keeps you full a whole lot longer due to size of small size of stomach-so you don't get the "low blood sugar feeling"? I find that I have a few types of hunger/cravings. There are "cravings" because one might be bored, happy, sad, tempted, or just flat out want to have something-trying to work on these : ) and have come a long way. Then there is HUNGER. It could be a growling stomach, it could be that famished feeling like you could eat 6 tacos, then there could be the weak, shaky hunger, when you've ignored your hunger for too long. I found when I was on Phentermine, it blocked that shakey, low blood sugar hunger, where as normally I couldn't go more than a few hours without atleast a snack. Thanks for your thoughts and feedback!

Amy, I have low blood sugar but have not had any problems yet. Doesn't mean I won't, though. I have been very hungry, real hunger with my stomach growling. It sounds like I'm not the norm, because most people say they don't. The growling is a little uncomfortable in my tummy, but it doesn't take much food to stop it. I have been very disappointed about the hunger part of this, but It's still better than that awful feeling I used to have after I had pigged out the night before and felt like I had a food hangover. I'm hoping this will change once I'm on regular food. liquids have always gone right through me. I'm learning that everyone is so different. Joanie

AWESOME I am so excited for you.. I am on the edge of taking plunge. It is great to hear that Dr Watkins lives upto his reputation.

Thanks so much Amy! I can recommend Dr. Watkins wholeheartedly.

I had a dream (nightmare) last night that I had been on a diet and lost a lot of weight, but had messed up and pigged out. Then I couldn't stop eating, just like I always have done in the past. When I woke up this morning, I was so depressed because I had blown it once again. Then I remembered that it was a dream and that I can't pig out anymore, and it was such a relief. That dream told me that I had done the right thing.

I wish you all the best and know you will make the right decision for you. I can tell you're a super sleuth, too.:thumbup: Joanie

I'm sooo nervous, im having surgery on Aug 28 in Mexico with Dr Corvala....Im excited yet nervous...I don't want to wake up with untolerable pain or vomiting....I have never had general anes only local....reading this thread makes me feel better...Does anyone know of anymore sites that have plication threads/forums????.:thumbup1:

Hi Jenny. I had my surgery last Fri. and did not wake up with intolerable pain or vomiting. In fact, I have taken no pain meds since surgery and have not vomited once. Everyone is nervous about surgery, but usually the anticipatory anxiety is 100 times worse than the actual event. You'll do fine!

Hey Everybody. Well, I did it. I had my surgery on 8/6. The surgery went fine, and we drove seven hours home the day after. Dr. Watkins and staff were wonderful. He said he would take good care of me, and he did. He repaired a lot of scar tissue from my previous surgeries I had and a hiatal hernia. He is a hiatal hernia super sleuth. He said he doesn't just repair them if he sees them, he takes out his spy glass and goes looking for them.

I did go through a stage of, "what the @#$% did I do to myself," but that passed quickly enough. I had very little pain and only some nausea after I drank, but I'm feeling much better today and start mushies tomorrow. My preop diet started on 7/29, and since then, I have lost 13 pounds. WooHoo!!!

This is for you, Dr. Wakins: :thumbup1:

Hi Ck! I am loving your blog!

Are you back to work? Do you think 11 days away from work is sufficient? Is there WiFi and a phone in the room? I am going alone :thumbup: so I need to call family while in recovery....

I am so nervous - less than 48 hours away!

Mari

Me too Mari. My surgery is Friday. How has your preop diet been going? Joanie

Hi Everyone: I am thrilled I found something devoted to the gastric sleeve plication surgery. I just had this done on 07/23/10 with Dr. Lopez Corvala of Mexico. So far 8 days post op, and had a minor setback in that I came back only to be "attacked" by a large kidney stone! Just got out of a hospital last night here in Florida that in NO WAY compared to my treatment in Mexico! Just to aleve peoples concerns...the kidney stone has been growing for a long time, and just decided to make itself known, it had nothing to do with my surgery according to several physicians I spoke with. They were all intrigued with my new gastric prodecure. LOL So, now that that is behind me hopefully, I can concentrate on losing weight, and feeling healthy! I got on the scale this morning for the first time since surgery, and am down 8lbs 2 ozs! Yeah me!! I will figure out how to get a weight loss ticker, but for now I started at 231 lbs pre surgery. My goal is 145 lbs somewhere down the road. I have eaten a little solid food in the way of baked chicken chewed very well, but am mostly sticking to mushy, soft foods for now. I feel full with about 4 ozs, and don't have a problem yet feeling too much hunger. Hope that remains this way. Thanks for listening, and looking forward to sharing our journeys! Penny:thumbup1:

Hi Penny. Welcome to the board! It's good to hear from the brave soldiers who have gone before us. :-) My surgery is scheduled for this Friday. Way to go on your weight loss. That's amazing. Joanie

Hi Bird. I just came back from a consultation with Dr. Watkins. I'm scheduled for Aug.3. I think he's a very caring and dedicated professional, and I know I made the right choice. Welcome to the boards. Hope today is better for you.

Oops! Wrong surgery date. It should be Aug. 6.

hi everyone ! this is nicole and i am going to Mexico to have the sleeve done. hope all goes well! has anyone heard of dr Almanza in Tijuana mexico?

Welcome, Nikki. When is your surgery scheduled. Keep us posted on your progress. Joanie

Hey JoanieW how did it go? Were you already on a liquid diet when you went up for the appt yesterday? How long from first contact with Dr Watkins to surgery date? Hope the trip and everything else went well for you. Keep us informed please.

Hello MG. Thanks for asking about me. The consultation went great. I was really impressed by Dr. Watkins and his staff. They all adore him. I started my liquid diet on Friday. It's only been two days but seems like forever. I only have to do a week because my BMI is a little lower. Notice how I didn't say low, because it's not. When I first called the office, I went ahead and scheduled the consultation and the surgery at the same time, so it's only been about two weeks. I didn't want to wait any longer. What's your story?

I had my GPS done on 7/23, by Dr Watkins. I am now 5 days post op. The pocedure was recommended to me because I had the band for 3 years and never had great success. I was commited to the process and diet, but I could never get the "sweet spot".

So far I have had less pain then with the band. However, I don't remember it being so hard to get liquids in with the band recovery. Yesterday was a great day and I was able to get down almost 2 slim fast and about 2 bottles of Water. Today was bad, about 1 bottle of Water. I sip all the time. The pain in my chest is so tight because of the swelling it hurts to drink. I am hoping everyday will get better and I will not get dehydrated.

I did lose 12 pounds since the week prior to surgery. I am happy about that!

Hi Bird. I just came back from a consultation with Dr. Watkins. I'm scheduled for Aug.3. I think he's a very caring and dedicated professional, and I know I made the right choice. Welcome to the boards. Hope today is better for you.

Good to have you with us.

Hello Joanie,Today is one week post Op Dr Rodriquez at INT nothing bad to say it was an awesome experience , day 2 I thought why did i do this to myself not a regret since , I feel better than i have in so long, my family and friends are shocked that I had major surgerie 1 week ago they have been saying that since day 3 because we went to the coast 3 day post op, to go to costco and visit friends and its been that way since. My brain doesnt work quite as well because of diet loose energy just a bit at times......Full liqueds tommorow. the Hospital nurses DRS were unbelievable.

are you sleeved or sleeving ? there is a blog that I went into detail about DRS

Hi Ellen. I will be getting gastric plication from Dr. Watkins in Cincinnati on Aug 6. I live about six hours away from him, so I am leaving today for consultation with him tomorrow. I am so happy this went so well for you and that you are happy. Can I call you a loser? :-)

Congratulations! You're an inspiration.

have a great surgery.

Thank you, Ellen. How was your surgery and where did you have it done? Joanie

Thank you, momrn and welcome. I'm glad you posted. I trust what you had to say and feel much better about having this procedure which is going to be on 8/6. Joanie

Hello I had my GPS wed the 21st in TJ by Dr Rodriquez and I think a panel of DRs. The 2nd day was my worst day I slept most of the day , I have been on the go since 3rd day post op, nobody can believe I just had major surgery. i allready have so much more energy and feel great My clothes are getting loose im down 20 LBS from pre diet and post diet.

My experience in TJ was awesome, My DRS and Nurses treated me very well I have nothing but good to say. Dr Rodriques saw me going to get my post op X ray and gave me a big hug , 2 Drs came to my motel at 10:30pm day 2 post op just to check on me and make sure I was taking my meds, they thanked me for trusting them. My anisthiesioloigist held my hand pre surgery she could tell I was nervous, All the belight staff (Patient facilitators)were great, My personal one that I had first contact with was very sweet and helpful, a little absent minded, but all the others I had contact with were awesome and very knowledgble.the hospital INT was modest but sufficient. My driver Roberto was a kick kept life interesting almost feel like he is a bud................... so my experience gets a 9 3/4 out of 10

Welcome Ellen. Here's a big WOOHOO! on your 20 pound weight loss. Joanie

Thank you ALL of you for answering my questions. I will be private pay (I guess like everyone who gets Plication). Do any of you know how many Plications Dr.Watkins has done and what package he charges? It looks like Dr. Corvala has done over 50. Those are the two Drs that I am considering the most right now. I have started reading your Fat Woman On A Mission Blog and I think it's great! Any and all of you, I would eat up any info you can your experiences with Hospitals/Drs. Whoever it was that had a bad vibe from one particular Dr, can you please PM me and tell me who and why? I have never had surgery before so I want to try to anlyze best I can. I live in the South, and there is a Dr. in FL that I think does it, but I want to go to someone with a few surgeries under their belt.

Has anyone had shoulder pain from the gas they put in your stomach? Just curious.

Also did most of you go see your regular Dr. for a physical first? I am think that might not hurt.

I am loving the fact that you all seem to be staying full! I wouldn't be suprised if any one of you get a call from Oprah or one of the Doctor shows.. to me, this surgery is wonderful!

For any newbies..

I think I found the IRAN orgination..

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. - Journal of Laparoendoscopic & Advanced Surgical Techniques - 17(6):793

Thread about Brazil Studies

New procedure Gastric Sleeve Plication as a Revision for LAP-BAND? - LAP-BAND? Surgery and LAP-BAND? Discussion Forum

The last time I checked on Dr. Watson's stats, he had done five plications. No one in the US is going to have very many under their belt. Dr. Watkins is charging me $10,000 for self pay. Dr. Cottam in Utah is charging around $6300, but I just couldn't get him to call me back in a timely manner. I waited two weeks for a phone consultation, and he never called. Then I waited another week, and he never called. When I did finally speak to him, he said he would have someone in the office call me, but no one ever did, so I called Dr. Watkin's office, and they were on the ball! I think Dr. Cottam is a good doctor, but I wanted to do this and I didn't want to wait any longer. It would have also been another six weeks before the surgery, because they have a catheter made specially for that patient and it takes six weeks after they order it. Dr. Watkins is going to Utah to scrub in with Dr. Cottam next week and to share information with each other.

There is a doctor at the Univ of Fla that is doing them, but when I called his office, I got the run around. I was never able to get any info. It may be different now, because that was over a month ago.

Yes, I did have a physical with my doctor who did all my blood work, and Dr. Watkins will be using that information. The office said they didn't want to repeat blood work if they didn't have too. They will let me know if there is anything else they require when I see them on Thurs.

Thanks for sharing the info that you find.

Hi Becka, thanks so much for your reply. Yes, thank God for this forum, I realized that I didn't want the type of surgery where food gets stuck and have foreign objects in my body. Was really looking at regular vertical sleeve, especially if with ghrelin reduction factor. It does seem like those who have had their VSG say they get less hungry. But it was really interesting to see what your doctor said and I can help but wonder about all the other hormones we don't know about. This might be of interest, in one video clip, it shows studies that ghrelin levels were LOW in BINGE eaters and OBESE! So go figure.. Ghrelin Study and Weight Loss - Watch WebMD Video At any rate, I was finding it hard to get the courage to do the VSG (like I should try one more time on my own to loose weight - but really, my family is all obese so I just want to have surgery so I can live my life now and have a better qualify of life.) But I am feeling like I am ready to go with plication! And that is why I wanted to talk to you.. You said so far you feel very full? I know it is so soon, but do you think you feel full longer then you did before surgery? Did your Dr. address when you can have carbonated drinks? Are you allowed to have, let's say, a completely flat diet coke? If not now, when? Do you feel fine digesting dairy or do you have any heartburn issues? Thanks so much!

Hi Amy. I haven't had my surgery yet, but I did want to welcome you. I am scheduled for Aug. 6 with Dr. Watkins (same as Becca) in Cincinnati. Keep us posted on what you decide. Joanie