PdxMan

Oye! What a question! Yee Haw! Do I have encouraging things to say! First off, have you checked out the Band to Sleeve Revisions forum? Basically, all the folks that had bands with complications and decided to go to sleeve. For me, I needed a fundamental change with my relationship with food that was permanent. I know deep down that my relationship with food was not good and a band, for me, would have been a temporary crutch. I needed something permanent. Sleeve fits the bill. While there are staples in my stomach, there are no other devices or re-routing of my internal organs. This is my same stomach functioning in the exact same way ... just smaller. I had my surgery 14 months ago, have been at goal (lost 100% of my excess weight) for several months now and still have excellent restriction. I can eat any food I want to, just in smaller quantities. It was the tool I needed to get to a healthier me. If you are viewing through a web browser, you can see some of my before and after pictures HERE.

MOM solved my issues. Just keep taking it regularly, even after things start moving.

I bet they are used by sleevers, for sure. I think, for a lot of us, when we make the decision to have this done, we want the weight off yesterday. Patience is a difficult thing, for sure.

Corn is one of the most difficult foods to digest. Ever wonder why you see it in the toilet ... ? I wouldn't do it at 6 months, let alone 6 weeks ...

I would ask him about using stop smoking aids and how they may affect any testing they may do.

I think if you do your research on these, you will find they really will not help you. These are for *normies*. Are you looking to curb your appetite? Shouldn't need to with the sleeve. Looking for malabsorption? Wouldn't recomend it to a sleever. It will happen for those who keep doing the right thing. This is not a race, is it? Do you win anything for getting to goal 2 months sooner? For me, learning better habits and exercising not only accelerated my weight loss, but has made me healthier overall. I don't think taking supplements would do that for me.

You know, it doesn't take much for us to slip back to old habits. Just a couple days ago I was eating pork chops with grilled yellow squash. It was sooooo yummy. Basically, I went back to inhaling. I ate too much, too quickly and, just like you, paid the price. I was on the verge of sliming and was hoping I would throw up I felt so terrible. I just wasn't thinking and let my taste buds take over. I wasn't hungry, but I kept eating. But, I guess that is the joy of the sleeve. It reminds us.

Yes, you are going to lose some hair, but it will grow back. I had about 3 months of loss, then it started coming back. 6 months later you would have never known I had ever lost any hair. Yes, it was thinner, but I styled it a bit differently and put some gel in. Just a small bump in the worthwhile road.

Well ... it could be a good thing. Do you really want to have a surgeon who feels he is performing too many surgeries a day? I know I wouldn't want to have my surgeon not be 100% comfortable with where he is at mentally and physically. Dec 17 ... that will be plenty of time to be back in action for Christmas. I had my surgery on a Friday and was back at work the next Wednesday. Just make sure you have some endurance going into the surgery. Start your exercise regimin now and you will be amazed at how quickly you will rebound from surgery.

I never really did because I know that there is no such thing as getting too much water. I just try to do the best I can each and every day with my liquids. Even at over a year out. Compared to pre-surgery, I still don't come anywhere near what I used drink, liquid wise. Am I really going to stop and assess at 6:00 PM ... "Well, I had a Gatorade (20 oz), 3 glasses of water (30 oz) and a protein shake (10 oz). There's my 60 oz of liquid for the day so, I don't have to drink anymore." No ... I'm going to keep going and pushing myself to drink more liquids. If I am assessing my intake and I discover I am short, do I beat myself up? No ... I am going to keep drinking and try to do better the next day. Come up with some new tricks to get it in. And if I am meeting my goals each day, should I pat myself on the back? Yes ... but you should continue to push yourself as you get more time in because one of the things you should be adding is exercise, and that is going to take some liquids to maintain. Bottom line, never get complacent on your liquid intake.

Here is a good article ButterTheBean has in his signature. Stalls are a normal part of this journey.

Yes, it does heal. The scar tissue will form over the staples and there will be no risk of leakage from the surgery. How long that takes is going to be different for everyone, of course, but don't push yourself and do everything right, you will be out of the woods in a few weeks.

Pretty much the reason I got the surgery. My glucose was 100, BP was 135/85. Cholesteral was OK, but I had sleep apnea, too. I wasn't able to lose weight and keep it off the conventional way, so, the sleeve became an easy choice for me. Since then, my glucose is in the 80s, BP is 110/70 and cholesteral is awesome. I still do use my CPAP machine, though, as I find I do get a better night sleep with it.

Do a search on this site for stalls. Quite normal. Stay off the scale.

I couldn't say it any better myself. I think you are absolutely correct and is why I choose the sleeve.

Just for clarification, you do not *grow*. The fat pad covering the pubic bone reduces *revealing* the you that was already there ... just hiding. And yes, OTR has it correct, it is more like 30-35#s, but there is still a limit on that. You are not going to recover 6" by dropping 200#. Google it for the Dr Oz/Oprah Winfrey episode where he discusses.

None of the above ... From what I understand: The pyloric valve sits at the bottom of the stomach. When it opens, it allows the food which has been mechanically digested by the stomach to pass into the large intestines. This is where nutrients, for the most part, get absorbed, not the stomach. (B12 is an exception) The stomach, combined with acids and the moving around of the contents, makes a liquidy paste of the contents. When it is liquidy enough, the pyloric valve opens allowing some of the contents to pass lowering the amount of food remaining in the stomach. Not all will pass at once, depending on what you ate. Adding liquid to the stomach gives the pyloric valve a *false* signal to open and allow food to pass a bit too early. This allows food to pass out of the stomach sooner which would allow the consumer to eat more. Eat more food, consume more calories ... well, you get the point. Kind of misses the point of having the sleeve in the first place, doesn't it? I have experimented with this when I was running a lot of races. I couldn't get enough calories in to maintain my exercise efforts, so, a couple days before a race, I would drink with my meals. I could DEFINITELY eat more food at a single sitting and could eat again sooner. Now, I'm not talking about eating like I did in the old days, for sure, but I could get up to 1,600 to 1,800 calories in a day, no problem.

What are you doing for exercise? What are you willing to do for exercise? I can't imagine having any level of energy at 600 calories.

Yowsers. Why are you trying to stay under 600 calories per day? Is that Dr orders? Remember, you can exercise, so if you are able to do an additional 200 calorie burn, you add 200 to whatever daily intake ... 600 ... I was doing that a couple weeks post op, but to maintain that level won't be good in the long run. You can't get enough carbs in for energy.

This sounds like me exactly. Love TJ's turkey jerky. I did 2 protein shakes a day as well.

Boy ... a real meal ... at 5 weeks ... I don't think I had a *real meal* until I was 6 months out. Or at least what I would consider a real meal. I never really differentiated between a snack and a meal since they were pretty much the same thing. I ate what I was comfortable with at whatever time. Didn't worry about quantifying it as a *meal* or a *snack*. So, yes, while my family ate a hamburger for dinner, I would have a baby belle and a small section of sliced turkey. They might have some cheese and crackers after school and I would eat some lentil Soup. Just eat what you can, when you can and call it good. Jerky, Protein bar, sliced deli meats, cheese, yogurt ...

I hear you, but tell me, since you relate it to your first trimester of pregnancy, do you now regret being pregnant? If you had a chance to undo your pregnancy so you didn't have to endure it, would you now or was it worth it? I can't speak to that aspect of life directly, but I sure am happy my wife endured her two pregnancies. I'm quite elated by the result of that as well as my WLS journey. It does get better ...

Sorry, can you help us with a timeline? Your lapband presurgery weight was 243 and with it you dropped to 155 or your sleeve surgery weight was 243? When was your sleeve surgery? What is your exercise routine like? Do you track your food on MyFitnessPal or the like?

Yup, didn't know I had one. Dr repaired it for me. I, too, had horrible reflux for years. I haven't had to take a PPI since my surgery, BTW. Swallowing was probably a little more difficult for a couple extra days, but that is about it. It was definitely an added bonus.

I started at a 40 BMI, 300# and my moobs were gone when I hit about 205# mark, as I recall.