WingRider

I am having probs getting motivated to exercise more and since I am not a coffee drinker and tired all the time I am looking for something to help me. Does anyone know what the scoop is on energy drinks such as 5 hour energy and VSG? So far I like the results, I’ve been energized to exercise which is also helping my depression and lack of motivation and was thinking of including the drink as part of my breakfast. If I can become motivated in the mornings, the rest follows, otherwise I am giving myself excuses not to do anything. I look forward to your advice, thanks.

Hello,

I haven't tried 5 hour energy, so I can't relate there. However, I was feeling very tired and run down about 2-3 months after surgery. I was doing Protein shakes in the moming like everyone suggested, but by 10 am I was sluggish and even having lunch would not re-energize me. I stopped the Protein Shakes and started having an egg, some ham or bacon, hashbrowns, and a slice of whole wheat toast. Not a lot of anyone item, an egg, a strip of bacon, a small amount of carbs. Or I would eat a breakfast taco with egg and potatoe on a tortilla. Now I don't miss breakfast and I keep my energy levels up all day. I honestly feel that the lack of carbs in my diet was keeping my metabolism ramped down. Now I get that kick start in the morning and I keep it going all day long.

Bill

Awesome job Bill. Life is good without all the "insulation", isn't it?

Yes it is. I do get cold easily now, in the past you would be hard pressed to hear me complain about it being too cold.

Hello all,

I haven't posted in a long time, but I am posting this to help people see how successful this procedure really is. I had my sleeve on 12/29/09 and weighed in at 345. Today a year and a week later I am weighing in at 222. I am extremely happy with my progress, I had been stalled at 226-227 since Thanksgiving 2010, but I have started the scale moving again this past week.

As far as my well being, I feel like a totally different person. I have energy, sleep great at night(no more CPAP), love shopping for clothes now(went from buying 52" pants to 36" and 3XL shirts to XL or Large!). Money saved from not eating so much has helped me keep my wardrobe fresh. If I had to do it again I would not wait so long to purchase new clothes. I kept wearing the 52" pants for the longest time, just cinching up the belt. When I finally broke down and bought new pants I bought 40"'s. Boy did I start getting a lot of compliments about my weight loss once I did that. I was just so used to wearing baggy tent-like clothing it didn't seem to bother me.

I started a Couch to 5K program as my New Year's Resolution and just registered for a 5K the second week of March. I am so stoked about my ability to actually do the training program and excited that in 9 weeks I will be running for 30 minutes non-stop. I expect this to help me shed the last 20-25 pounds that I would like to lose. The last weight loss takes exercise, it would with our without the sleeve I firmly beleive. I haven't exercised much this past year, but I do lead a very active life juggling a small business, working a full time job, and volunteering 10-15 hours a week.

My eating ability is still weird. I eat Breakfast everyday, can't miss it or I will be tired and laggy later that day. lunch is still very light, but at dinner sometimes I get full really quick and sometimes I feel like I am eating too much. I make good food choices 90% of the time, I don't believe in complete denial of things we want(it just makes us want it more). I still struggle to drink 64 ounces of Water a day, never did like water. I know that more regular exercise will help me there though, I seem to crave water more when I have exercised in the past. I drink a margarita on Friday night like I used to, but I used to be able to drink 3 or more. Now I can't, I get intoxicated very quickly and feel like crap if I have more than one. No big deal, saves me money in the long run and not as unhealthy. Oh yeah, and even a year out if I do eat too much, it hurts like hell for about 5 to 10 minutes. Feels like a heart attack I assume feels.

Doctor is very pleased with my results. All my levels are checking out normal, where as before I was border line on BP(she wanted to start me on meds), I never did get tested for diabetes, but I know that I was borderline there because my energy levels were so erratic when I was heavy. My resting heart rate has gone from 75 bpm to 54 bpm. Cholesterol is in normal range. Only pills I take now are aspirin occasionally, Vitamins daily, and Prevacid daily.

I wave the VSG flag high and proudly. I talk to people about it all the time if they ask. I have no regrets to date.

Thanks for reading.

Bill

I had the same thing. My local PCP looked at it and informed me it was normal. It drained for about 3 weeks, some days very heavily and other days nothing. I took my entire course of antibiotics that I was given after surgery and I kept the wound dressed per the instructions my surgeon gave me. While the discharge looked gross, I never felt pain and their was no odor to the Fluid. I was so happy when the drainage stopped and the wound healed.

I wouldn't be worried.

Bill

Hello,

Glad all went well.

Bill

You will lose a lot really fast the first couple of weeks after surgery, then you will stall out. Most of us have had the week 3 stall. I lost 25 pounds the first 10 days too, but it doesn't keep that pace. I am sure most of mine was Water weight as the swelling in my lower legs went away within a few days after surgery and my rings fit really loose.

Bill

I don't get it. If she is trying to lose weight why would she go get a burger and fries?

Bill

Hello,

I just had this conversation with a customer/friend the other day. At first I did miss the food, the dinners that spread out over an hour visiting, eating, drinking, eating, and on and on. But now at almost 6 months out, I don't miss it that much anymore. I still can go out and visit, eat a little, drink a little, and socialize. I just stop eating long before anyone else does. The only time that I truly miss the big meal is going to a steakhouse. I used to eat a big old steak dinner and loved every juicey morsel of it. All my other favorite foods I can take home and reheat for left overs the next day, but steak just doesn't work that way. So it is hard to justify going to a steakhouse and buying an expensive cut and only eat 4 ounces of it. GF likes her steaks cooked Med and I am a rare to Med Rare guy. Oh well, no biggie(me included).

Bill

But I take a little bit of an issue with your wholehearted praise of the sleeve surgery. I have had a band to sleeve revision but I did so knowing that 6 or 7 years from now we may learn that there are some pitfalls to having 2/3 of our stomach removed. Remember, 5 years ago the band was the hottest thing since sliced bread.

As time passed and we've gathered more data, we've learned that there are some side effects and problems with the band that make it less than ideal for many people. We don't even know if in the very long term, having that device could cause cancer or other health conditions that would prove that it is not as safe as we all think it is.

So although the sleeve seems like the answer to a prayer, only time will tell. I'm betting that I'm always going to be better off having had the VSG but I know that it may not turn out that way. A prime example of what I'm talking about are all the hundreds of drugs that are created to relieve symptoms and in so many years of use, we learn that they are more lethal and dangerous than the condition they were created to treat.

My Great Aunt June was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1974. They surgically removed almost all of her stomach, she could still eat normal food, just very small amounts at a time. She continued to drink her beer and smoke her two packs of cigarettes until she passed away in 2007 from lung cancer. Never had another problem with her stomach for the rest of her life. It was because of her experience that my family fully supported me having the sleeve instead of the band. Thankfully my Grandma(June's sister) remembered her having the surgery and what all was involved. I think there is a lot of other similiar cases that suggest people can live fine with just a portion of their stomach.

I do agree with you about the drugs, but drugs can be sold at a profit and will always be attractive to companies to manufacture. Surgeries don't generate the repeat business that big companies need to sustain themselves.

Bill

Weird that you mentioned this, but yes I have noticed that I bruise easily on the legs now. I love to woodwork as a hobby in the evenings and am usually banging around in the shop 4 nights a week. It used to take a pretty good whack for me to bruise and it would go away fast. Now just the slightest bump leaves a mark for weeks at a time. I hadn't thought much about it till you brought it up. Could it be an Iron deficiency?

Bill

Great question. I used to spend daily $5 on breakfast/coffee, $12 lunch, $5 dinner at home or $20 eating out. Now I spend $4 on breakfast(Protein powders aren't cheap), $4 on lunch, and $2 on dinner at home but a $20 dining out meal will now feed me for 3-4 meals. I am saving big time on food costs now. We have also started to share a meal when eating out sometimes. Plus you have to add in the no more soda money, that was probably $4-$6 a day. So overall, I am saving a couple of hundred a month on food alone right now.

Bill

If you had first-hand experience at the aforementioned clinic by the same doctor and your experience was a totally different one, i.e., the place was spotless, they only performed 3 surgeries a day, the place you stayed after the surgery but before you came home was comfortable with every santitary precaution taking place including everyone wearing gloves when they checked on your wound, then you have some credibility and a reason to question the criticism we've read on this thread.

But if you haven't any first hand knowledge that disputes the criticism and you obviously didn't read all the posts, it seems that perhaps your protest is one that we should question.

BJean,

You hit my experience dead on the head. I was the only surgery of the day, there was only two other patients in the clinic when I arrived and they both went home the next day. Three more showed up later that day and I was around when they had their surgeries. Then I was at the recovery house for two days all to myself. The three new patients showed up the day before I left. My experience was great and that is why I have had such a hard problem believing the things being said, but I feel certain in my heart that Ryansgirl and Stoongal are speaking the truth about their experiences. Especially Stoongal because she was waving the Almanza flag harder than anyone after her surgery.

One of my best friends approached me last week to talk to me privately about his battle with obesity. I am glad that he brought up because he has been gaining the pounds I have been dropping. We was thinking lap band and wanted to know why I changed to the sleeve and what not. He then asked me about my doctor and I told him of my experience but that I would not recommend him now. I am so thankful that his insurance is supposed to start covering VSG soon. If not I will direct him to Aceves more than likely.

Bill

I think all replies so far have been from women. So for a guy's point view. I haven't had any comments or rude questions thrown my way and I am very open about my WLS. If there are things being said I don't hear them, but if I don, F'em! No big deal to me.

Bill

I'm three months out and feel hunger all the time, usually 1-2 hours after eating. It seems a little better just the last couple of days though, so maybe it will be getting better. But what a disappointment it has been.

Are you taking Prevacid/Prilosec? I was like that too. I would be hungry an hour or so after eating a meal. I started on Prevacid and within 3 days those hunger issues went away.

I am like Tiffykins and Mini-me, I do not get hungry. I can skip a meal or two, but I pay dearly for it. I have learned this the hard way. On two seperate occatsions I have been so busy with work I just blew through lunch and dinner. Finally in the evening I slowed down enough to eat a little something. I still wound up getting a massive headache in the middle of the night like I used to get pre-op from being hungry. In the past a big hearty Breakfast would make it go away(carb heavy). Well, flash forward to now and I can't have a big meal. It took me a day and a half to get caught up on my food intake to get rid of those headaches because of the small portions. So, now I make it a point to not skip a meal, it seems silly when I eat so little, but that is how my body is working.

I am so glad that my hunger is gone, I hope it never comes back.

Bill

Gotta put this story out there I guess, to try & prevent more horrible outcomes. I went to Emmanuel clinic when it was not very busy. I found it to be an easy surgery for me to recover from & I am now 72 (this was last September BEFORE all the flurry of infections came out.) I trusted and believed everything my coordinator told me and I especially trusted Betancourt. I have since found out he in very mu*****ontrol of everything down there, and a lot of it is coverup and lies. Yes he is charming but charm is not what you are paying for. I even argued FOR them and posted to the nth degree refuting everyone who had negative things to say about them (the whole experience) I even talked my daughter and sister to go down and have their surgeries done, that is how confident I was.

Fast forward to middle of January, I went with my family and for a few days had a very nice time. Dismayed at the size of the new clinic, and I was even more dismayed that Dr Almanza was so over-booked! My sister Linda went in for her sleeve after 10 pm at night, the 6th of the day! I was worried about that as it was so overcrowded in the clinic and so little room for anyone to maneuver, but held my tongue as we expected the best outcome.

To make a long story short, my sister became very ill while there at the recovery house, Betancourt said it was gas pains and continued to give her pain control shots. She was in no shape to fly home on the Friday as booked, they caught the fact she had a collapsed lung and severe dehydration and she went back in for intravenous saline and oxygen, but they assumed there was no leak because of their tests.

BUT THERE WAS, a centimeter nick out of the stomach high up near the esophagus, and when the housekeeper took out the drain, fluids gushed out of Linda's body. the housekeeper just cleaned it up and said nothing, so we assumed things were OK, no leaks. She was in rough shape when I flew home with her on Saturday. She had to go to the hospital in Edmonton shortly after she got home as she went into septic shock, had a collapsed lung again, severe dehydration and kidney failure because of it. They operated on her for four hours, and ended up with flushing out her body cavity - over a liter of pus!. She was near death and was for well over a week! We were devastated to say the least..

Slowly things have improved since those first weeks passed, but she was in critical care for about 6 weeks until she could breathe on her own and not need a ventilator to help with that. The infection spread and caused all kinds of porosity in her stomach and esophagus.

To date she is STILL in the hospital in Edmonton, still being fed intravenously and with a feeding tube directly to her gut, while waiting for the last hole to heal in her esophagus, they did insert a stent but haven't tested it for leaks so far. She had a large hole in her abdomen due to all the 5 ensuing body cavity flushes they had to do every other day in the beginning weeks. It is healing and she will need two further operations, a skin graft and a hernia repair on the incision site. We do expect a full recovery but only after they test her stomach out with real food, which can be weeks away yet. She has lost her job, her income of course and a good chunk of her life due to this facility's operation. Safety should be your main concern, Betancourt and Almanza's "stacke'em and rack'em" policy is not doing anyone any favors. Dr Almanza, as nice as a man he is, is now a partner and profits are what it is all about now it seems.

There have been many (20 I heard), complication tales from there since December, most were too sick to tell them themselves but are known to many of the coordinators. They all distance themselves from those, chalking it up to normal rate of complications. They have to do damage control, it is their JOB, and Betancourt controls them! Doing so many surgeries a day in my opinion is SO NOT SAFE! Do NOT believe the other Drs listed in the PR for their new website are actually doing surgeries there yet, as Dr Almanza wants the extra surgeries for himself mainly.

Spend the extra now and go to a safe hospital down there, spend the $4000 more to save yourself from becoming another Linda, with hospital costs being what they are in the US I would think that would be more important than the up front extra now to save months of hospital and surgery bills as well as your lost income from your job should things go wrong.

Check out my photo albums for a picture of me visiting Linda in the hospital in Edmonton last month when I was there. Sorry Linda, I had waited for you to tell your story but you can't sit up long enough to type it out on the computer and people really need to hear this!

All of this is true and I am so sorry I doubted everyone that had problems there, even John who's wife wrote of his experience was pretty sick the day we drove to the airport with them and he ended up with infection and in the hospital. It was extremely busy the day of his surgery too. I am not saying that you won't have a good experience, but why risk it if you don't absolutely have to, is all I am saying, there are WAY too many stories like Linda's from that facility to ignore!

Stoongal,

I am so sorry to hear Linda's story. I was thinking things must not be good because you were on the boards so often then just disappeared. I am thanking God above for having made it through and fortunate enough to have not gone to the new hospital.

Bill

BJean, I'm very happy to answer all your questions. Up until this point, I've tried to guess exactly what it is that everyone wanted to know. It seemed to be a question of infection rates, etc. But now that you have asked specific questions, this greatly helps!

To be clear about what the "half way house" is. It is a place where patients go after release from the hospital. This is instead of going to a hotel. Many doctors will have patients arrive the day before surgery, stay at a hotel, then check in to the hospital the next day and depending on which surgery they have, patients will stay in the hospital up to 3 days, and then go to a hotel to spend a little extra time, see the doctor again, and perhaps have some testing done before going home. We provide the same, except instead of using a hotel for the "extra days of recovery", patients are sent to the recovery house. All attendants do wear gloves at both of the facilities and there are boxes of gloves on the walls in all the rooms.

There is air conditioning and fans at the facilities. The weather in Tijuana is mild and sometimes they don?t always turn on the air conditioning. They do ask patients if they are comfortable. Sometimes it can be difficult when some people feel hot and others feel cold. That's the reason for the fans. This way those that are hot can use fans without freezing the others out!

The recovery house is stocked with food. They mostly shop at costco. They provide bottled Water as well. Patients are offered liquids such as broth, Jello and juice. There is food for the companions of the patients to eat as well.

Most staff speak at least some English. All staff understand words such as pain, help, etc. They also understand the phrase, "Speak English" and they know to get someone that is fluent in English. There is ALWAYS someone available that speaks English that a staff member can reach in the event of a language barrier. One of the pluses of this Center is that it is owned by the same people that run it. This means that they have control over who works there. When a doctor uses an independent hospital, they have no control over much of the staff so they cannot guarantee that there will always be someone that speaks English. That's not to say that some of them don't have them, but they are not required to have English speaking staff.

The staff is medically trained. There are nurses, medical assistants and doctors at the facilities. All labor is very reasonable in Mexico. That's one of the reasons prices are lower there. There is no need to hire untrained people. Trained people can be hired for very reasonable wages.

The OR is completely cleaned after each procedure. They have a specific staff just for that. All the medical supplies are clean and much of the supplies are disposable, just like in the U.S. The same standards of sterilization used in the U.S. is also used at the facilities.

Other supplies such as staples, bands and other equipment designed for use in bariatric surgeries is of the same quality as in the U.S. and are from U.S manufacturers. All such materials are purchased from the Mexican distributors of the company's manufactures. That is the law in Mexico. For example, you must purchase Allergan bands from the Mexican Allergan distributor. ALL facilities and surgeons MUST do this. It is the same product, however the price is a bit lower in Mexico than in the States. The same Band that sells for $3000 in the U.S. sells for $1800 in Mexico.

There are certain things that are done to help keep costs lower than most. One is that the hospital is owned by the surgeon and administrator so instead of paying a hospital fee of up to $4000 or more per surgery, the surgeon just pays the over head. The other main cost saver is that Bands, Staples and other materials are purchased in very large quantities, which saves a lot in costs. For instance when they purchase staples they purchase at least $300,000 or more in product at a time. In doing so, the cost per item is MUCH less. Bands are also purchased in large quantities, so that $1800 band can be as much as $500 or more less when purchasing hundreds of them instead of just a dozen.

I cannot speak to how most doctors set their profits. I'm sure it's like anything else. Some charge more for their services, some less. Jerusalem does perform a higher volume which allows them to charge a little bit less in per patient profit. There are other small things that save extra money, such as owning their own shuttle vehicles. A Mexican airport shuttle costs about $130 per person to make a run to and from the San Diego Airport.

I have no problem answering any questions anyone may have. In fact I welcome the opportunity to do so. It's much better than all the assumption and guessing that I see. It's also much easier for me because I have been trying to figure out exactly what questions, people want addressed.

I thank you for your questions! Additionally if anyone would like to call me to engage in a back and forth discussion or more questions, I welcome that as well.

Hello all,

First of all I am a Dr. Almanza patient. I don't post often here, I do read daily though. Perhaps this is my new addiction instead of eating. Who knows.

I just wanted to back up Sandy's post, what she is saying is exactly what I saw/experienced/remember of my surgery 12/29/09. I have had no complications, my PCP here stateside has been happy how everything turned out and my weightloss is rocking along. See my ticker below. The house is nice, the people there are very accomodating and thoughtful. I was not at the new Jerusalem Hospital so I can't speak of it, but I am sure it is very nice.

Dr. Almanza spent almost 4 hours on my surgery, apparently underneath all of that fat my abdominal wall is pretty muscular and it was difficult for him to get his tools inside to do the job. Didn't charge me more. He could have, I used more of his time, more anethtesia, more nurses time, etc. I know he spent 4 hours on Fabby50 conversion from band to sleeve. There is no way he is doing 12 surgeries in one day. It can't be done, sure most do get complete in an hour, but I don't believe for a minute that he could string together 12 perfect easy cheesy surgeries.

I have my life back because of him and his team. Once again, I just wanted to validate Sandy's claims about the house/staff as I was there.

Bill

What a load of crap they are trying to sell you. I live and work in Texas. In the past 18 months I have been employed by two different companies. Both used Aetna. The first had all bariatiric procedures excluded because it raised the premiums to high for the employer and employees. The second employers also provides Aetna, and yes my premium went up 10.00 a month but lap band and RNY are covered. Aetna, at the time of my surgery, did not cover the sleeve period.

Your employer has opted out of providing a better insurance plan, that is the true answer. There isn't much you can do about it either, they have the right to provide what they want to provide.

Bill

It amazes me that no one has disagreed with your actions. How would/will you feel if one or both of these guys were seeing someone else besides you? The two guys you are stringing along might be looking for something serious and you are wasting their time because one of them is going to get dumped eventually. I am sure this is adding some excitement to your life because you are getting attention and the chance you will get caught heightens it even further. It also doesn't paint a good picture how you will behave in the future after you pick one of these two guys.

I think you should come clean with them both, and let the chips fall where they fall.

Bill

Neat idea, funny how the few magnets on your fridge are utilatarian and not just for looks.

Bill

I don't know what happens differently during surgery, but I do know during post-op they will want to put your CPAP on you to make sure you keep breathing during recovery. My travel companion said I had a very hard time to keep breathing without it after being wheeled out of surgery. Once I got my mask back on she said I was okay.

Bill

Good job, keep it up.

Bill

i am 78 pounds down and fit into my friend's bra and dress last night! she took a picture and i hardly recognized myself lol it felt great! i was at a size 44 bra and hers is a 38! not sure what size the dress was...

Posts like this are worthless without pictures. LOL.

Good job

Bill

No, I am not Jesus. I understand what you are saying, and I think being tactful is prudent. I am not suggesting that blurting out to every overweight person you meet that they should have WLS is a good idea. Probably going to get you butt kicked a couple of times a day(might be a good exercise regimen though...LOL). I think the OP has studied his subjects and might be able to make a connection because they see each other all of the time. You never know the guys he is watching are watching him and might be thinking how the heck is that guy loosing weight? But they are scared to ask because people's weight is so taboo.

One of my best customers point blank told me one day to lose some weight that I was going to die. I will never forget that. He was right, and he had the balls to tell me when no one else would, even the people who love me the most. He didn't care if I was offended. He had nothing to lose, but after meeting about 5-6 times he felt it important enough to tell me what he thought. He is the first person I want to go see when i get to goal, even before I see the one's who love me the most.

Bill

True Texas Girl-"FIXING to go out." How did you break your to go out? Do you think it will be as good after you FIX it? LOL. I am a Texas Boy so I can bust on you a little. Ya'll out of staters cain't though, Alright?

BTW, you look great, keep up the good work.

Bill

Good thing Jesus talked to people he didn't know about some great ideas he had.

I guess since I am in outside sales I am forced to talk to people about things that they might not be comfortable about. Yes there are going to be some people who get offended or blow you off, big deal, you didn't know them before and you won't know them afterwards. The pay off is if one person listens to you and it makes a difference in their life. Regardless if they get WLS or not, maybe they go another route, maybe they share what you told them with someone else. Who knows where your words will travel, but if you never say anything then you aren't going help anyone.

Bill

Bill