anonynurse

Dr. Nick Nicholson at Baylor in Plano is the very best there is. One of the lowest complication rates in the country, young and personable and all around a good person. He has done well over 2000 sleeves. I recommend him so very highly. His pre-op diet is five protein shakes a day plus one small meal - much easier than some. As far as "hoops", they will depend purely on your own health situation.

I have been stalled since day 14, so I feel ya. But stopping doing the right things guarantees this is not a stall but a permanent stop. So get off the alcohol. Get out your diet guidelines. Get back to eating "clean" and trust in yourself and your body. The suggestion above to see the dietician is a good one.

Almost four weeks postop here and I am doing well. I had a rough postop period, not with any complications, just more pain than I expected and far more fatigue. The last five days though have really been awesome. All pain is gone, yesterday I started back at the gym and actually beat my best time to distance ratio on the elliptical, which was pretty surprising and amazing considering I am still in postop period and my diet is so different from what my body is used to. I am shrinking in inches and my skin looks amazing. I feel......healthy. If these are my first glimpses of life with a sleeve, I am thrilled I made the switch.

Yep. It is completely normal. That is the incision where they brought the stapler through and where they took the stomach out. It was excruciating for me too and I could not figure out why others had almost no pain. My doc did an extra stitch there to prevent some kind of hernia. It took a LONG time to go away - as in, I have only been pain free for the past 5 days and I am nearing the 4 week postop point. After 2 weeks I got to where I only used the Lortab at night, but I definitely still needed it up until five days ago. Now it is gone completely and I am starting to feel pretty awesome, but it was rough for a while there. Much rougher than I expected. It will resolve. Hang in there!

I want to punch your mom in the neck. That was mean. Yes, looks matter and you are growing in confidence as you shrink in size. Just tell yourself it is like responding to an inappropriate child. Set firm boundaries for what you will tolerate. Their behavior will coincide with the expectations. I am sure next time you will shut it down on the first text or comment, and doing so will get more eye-rolling and easy. You have value - as your expectation for quality in your relationships rise, so will the quality of men you attract. :hug: There ARE good ones out there.

I appreciate this so much. I have not lost anything for a little while and I can eat 1/2 to 3/4 cup before getting a "full" sensation. Between the two, I have been super concerned that I am already setting up to fail.

I was a revision as well and had similar pains postop. I am just a small bit ahead of you in terms of time since surgery and today is the first day I have had ZERO pain from that area and my left side. It will get better - just take it easy, use your pain meds and try to avoid aggravating it too much..

Gastrectomies, full and partial, have been done for well over 40 years. This is a type of partial gastrectomy. If you want accurate information on the mortality of that, research that. If you follow postop guidelines and eat the way you are supposed to and take your supplements as advised, the risk of leaks and malnutrition are nearly zero. I believe the information you saw was in relation to either gastric bypass or duodenal switch or both.

Yeah, we have all been there. But....playing devil's advocate here....and hear me out.....does getting compliments now automatically imply some kind of criticism of before? Because I hear people saying that a lot. Someone saying an individual looks hot doesn't always have a silent "unlike before...." tagged on the end. While yes, I experienced some of what is being addressed above, I too can't deny that YES, I have changed since I lost the weight. I make eye contact. I feel less shame. I am more outgoing. I feel more attractive and I feel more worthy inside. It IS a two sided coin and social relationships are complicated. Add to that the human being really is a mammalian species, all of whom tend to shun, ostracize and attempt to minimize reproduction with species members who are ill, dying and in poor health. I refuse to let how I was treated before occupy my thoughts. As far as I am concerned, I have earned how I am treated now and what happened before is gone. I can't change it except in how I treat others. And I see plenty of people who used to be fat who are now horrible to those who still are.

I am allowed raw fruit and veggies only after the six week mark.

We made love one week after surgery. It hurt. That didn't stop us. :laugh:

I am 20 days postop and to be very honest, I am not having fun so far. I have a lot more pain than most here have reported and I am needing a 2-4 hour nap every day. I don't have enough energy to shop with my mom and definitely am not ready to go back to work yet. I am mourning being able to eat and feeling pretty rebellious about Protein shakes, which I am sick of. My initial loss has slowed down and I am starting to fear I am failing or going to fail to lose the rest of my weight. I have a great relationship with my surgeon and am optimistic that once I get better about getting in my protein that I will have more energy. And I believe that the pain WILL eventually pass and I will be able to get back to my life. Just taking it one day at a time right now and not dwelling too much on having had the surgery. This is how my life and food relationship is going to be. Building onward and upward.

My husband and I collect good wines and truly savor and enjoy them. My surgeon said no alcohol for three to six months. So I figure I will be able to enjoy our wine again around Christmas, which I am looking forward to. It WILL slow weight loss down and for some people (like me) pretty significantly. It is temporary, so I can do it. But I miss it and will look forward to that first glass. But I am not going to drink it daily anymore, even when I go back to having it in December.

I get a lot of attention from men now too. I was 274 when I first got banded, weigh 192ish now. I have stopped making eye contact with men at all, it makes me so uncomfortable. I almost feel like they are making fun of me. Its weird.

Yep, every doc is different based on how HE/SHE does the stitch line. It is important to resist giving in to temptation for solids too soon in order to allow the stomach to be quiet and heal. This, in turn, helps prevent a suture rupture, which can lead to a very dangerous leak. Call your surgeon before you advance your diet. The average is 14 days after surgery. My doctor requires 21 days on thin liquids before advancing to mushies.

:hug: Try not to worry. They have meds they give to break up the clot/thin the blood. You'll be on bedrest for a while until it has completely resolved and they will watch your blood counts closely. Let us know how it goes.

Coffee ground vomit is more concerning than BM. BM with old blood in it has a very distinctive, horrible smell beyond that of usual bad BM. Call your doc if worried.

Full fat here too. I personally feel watching carbs is more important than watching calories. I lose much faster and long-term when I just eat whole, natural foods.

You have had a lot of things happen to you in the last couple of years that were not within your control. The good news here is that right now you are 100% in control of doing all you can to prevent any kind of tragedy with this surgery. CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN. That means follow your postop diet to the letter. Be a freaking Nazi about it. Meditate on it and let yourself really grasp this - you are NOT a victim anymore. Your cravings are false. Your body does NOT need milk or any other thicker substance. What it needs is to heal and deviating from the plan, starting to smoke and the other things you mentioned are going to hamper the healing process. Stay in control. Revel in it. You are not a victim. Say that to yourself until you believe it. You are not a victim. All the things that have happened have brought you to this point. You are in a place now to decide exactly who you are going to be as a result of them. Choose to be stronger, more determined and motivated. You can do this. Think of the amazing story you will have to tell as the weight comes off, the story of who you have become in the face of these circumstances. You are your own hero right now. Rescue yourself. Stay on course. Get your fluids in. There should be something to drink near you every minute of every day and you should be drinking it near to constantly. Get that urine clear. And whatever you do, do NOT start smoking. It WILL affect how well you heal.

In some ways, losing the weight makes life harder, not easier. My top weight neared 300 lbs. I got down to the 180s with the lap band, regained a bit when I got it removed and am now back on my way down with the sleeve. Over the journey of weight loss, I have discovered that food has played a significant role in my life that had nothing to do with food or weight and everything to do with all sorts of things.....things like rebellion/control issues from parents who hid food from me, from pleasure I learned to associate reading and eating popcorn at the same time as the ultimate in self nurturing stress relief, etc. It masked a problem with major depression for me and kept me company when I was lonely. I have had t learn how to redefine what being in control really means (no, "they" don't win if I am thin by choice); I have had to learn better ways of dealing with stress and I have had to sit within a sense of loneliness and learned I won't die from it and that food doesn't take away whatever is causing it or even really comfort me from it. I have had to find other ways to wind down and de-stress and before I could do that, I had to FEEL the stress that food numbed away from me. So yeah. You will carry a lot of this with you even as the weight comes off. That being said, it doesn't mean you are going to fail, be miserable, suffer or hate your life or yourself. You will find strength in yourself you didn't know you have and you will learn new ways to cope. It isn't easy, but the hard makes it great. Don't look at just the weight loss - you become healthier as much from relearning how to use food as you do from getting the physical weight off your body.

Yep, keep your private info private and step away from the Google. Stick with sites you know have a true background of accurate, well supported, scientific information. If it troubles you, don't search it out and don't read it!

It takes time for those muscles to "wake up" after anesthesia for some people. The catheter also can cause things to either swell or temporarily paralyze. These things DO resolve, it just takes a little time. Narcotic pain medications make it difficult to urinate as well. Just do what they tell you to do, be patient and stay positive. Drink your fluids as much as you can, as being well hydrated will help wake things up. Walk walk walk, which also helps wake things up. And see how little pain medication you can get away with and still have a pain level no higher than 3-4 on a scale of 1-10.

Your surgeon makes his postop guidelines based on how HE does his surgery and on what has lead to the lowest rate of complications for his particular methods. Theoretically his complication rates were something you considered when choosing him, so to deviate from his instructions would be to expose yourself to a higher risk of leaks, swelling and problems. I feel your pain. Just hang in there. My surgeon requires three full weeks of thin liquids. I have another week to go of nothing that can't go through a wire strainer. It stinks, but I just keep reminding myself - there is a reason for his low low low rate of leaks (one in over five years, and that person went outside the postop guidelines). The time will pass. Hang tough.

It is all a matter of what the particular insurance requires. Aetna requires a 12 week supervised diet, as mentioned above. There is no getting around it when it is required. A few policies do not require a supervised diet, but Aetna isn't one of them.

Sometimes they can see an erosion from the inside that was not visible on the outside, and if there has been any reflux at any time they can see the damage from that as well. Usually the results are used to determine if insurance will cover the surgery or not as well as letting the physician know how complicated a case it may or may not be.