pcindy

I'm sorry.

I look just like your "before" pics! Very inspiring. I'm doing the exact same thing (front/side/back views) every 15lbs, to remind myself of my progress should I become discouraged. What I see in the mirror can be so distorted. Thanks for sharing!

LOL! I'm a stomach-sleeper AND a flopper as well! According to my huz, I also strike some interesting poses...:thumbup: I didn't even think about that issue... sh*t... :scared0:I guess I'll be riding the couch for a while (helps prop me on my side). Thanks for representing the men-folk, Pete! An underrepresented minority, but so important to remember! What would we women-folk do without you guys??? :ohmy:

For what my 2 cents are worth: Do skim for a couple of weeks no matter how icky you find it. Then go back to 1%. I have been drinking skim for so long that 1% tastes like 2%, 2% tastes like whole milk, and whole milk tastes like heavy cream. After suffering with skim (i happen to like it) for a while, that 1% will taste great. You mentioned that you feel like you need something more. You know your body (and probably know when you are or aren't deluding yourself). Your doc isn't your confessor or a police officer; don't elevate him to the rank of God. Be honest with him so he can be fully informed and thus treat you more effectively. If drinking skim is a better choice than 1% or 2%, fine, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's strictly verboten either. Your body may very well be telling you what it needs right now. Higher milk fat isn't going to strain your suture line any more than skim. If you have high cholesterol though, that might be a reason to cut back. We as women and as patients need to stop being SO self-critical and SO contrite all the time. We are adults. Let's stand up straight and trust ourselves and our ability to reason and assess our own situation. In the long run, skim vs 1% vs 2%... post VSG, how much milk per day are we really talking about? More than a cup or 2 a day? If not, life is short. If it rocks your world to drink a small percentage more milk fat and lose a lb or 2 less per month, in the long run, who gives a damn? If you're making healthy food choices in general and the weight is coming off, enjoy your goddamn milk, girl! :thumbup:

OMG, get AWAY from this doctor! He is not God, and who is going to live the rest of their life with this surgery? Not him, YOU. Find a doc with whom you can have a good rapport, strap on those weights (GREAT idea, Tiff! -no reason to risk your health by actually gaining weight) and get sleeved. I'm a nurse and have seen the horrors of diversionary surgeries first hand. DON'T DO IT. You want a sleeve? Get a sleeve.

Thanks for opening up this thread. I have several collegues (other nurses) who have been banded, and when I ask why not the sleeve, they all talk about fear of it being more invasive. I wonder if their real fear isn't that it's more permanant- and if they don't secretly hope they will one day be able to have it removed with no muss, no fuss and somehow be able to eat however they want without regaining the weight... It's just my supposition, but I don't know. I rethought the sleeve based on their positive experiences with the band, but I just can't stand the thought of a foreign object indwelling, like a potential ticking time bomb for complications. I appreciate all of the posts; it helps to cement my decision to have the VSG.

Hi all! I'm an ICU nurse in California. I remember well, LapGirl, the 'fun' of my tight (and ever-growing tighter) clinical uniforms, the unforgiving polyester straining... and being SO goddamned uncomfortable. (In fact, I remember a bunch of us wanting to burn our student uniforms at the end of the last clinical, but telling my classmates that they would probably just melt and send off toxic fumes!) As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome on this thread! Being a nurse is incredibly physically demanding (as we all know) with all of the reaching, bending, squatting, lifting, standing, crouching (is there a single hospital architect who has EVER become aquainted with the word, "ergonomics???"). Having to do all of this for 12-13hrs is getting increasingly debilitating. Everything hurts! My angel of a huz stretches me and gives me a massage just so I can sleep after a work day (I swear I come home 2 inches shorter!). I just don't know how many more years I have left at the bedside before my body just can't take it orthopedically. I'm 40 now, and my body just cannot handle this much weight. It never liked being this heavy, but now it's starting to go on red alert with high cholesterol, high A1C, my feet, knees and hips in agony, and a nice episode of going in and out of ventricular trigeminy (now controlled with a beta blocker). Short of having an actual MI, CVA or official diagnosis of diabetes, my body is screaming at me to get this weight off (oh, and thanks also to my pre-op testing, I now know I have an ulcer and GERD!). To further underscore the urgency of my situation, we want to start a family, and my husband REFUSES to knock me up while I'm this overweight. He's done his research, and he's absolutely right. Frankly, I doubt my own ablility to conceive at this weight. He doesn't want to risk either my health or that of the baby. Frankly, I can barely haul myself around as it is, much less a pregnancy and all of that physical stress on top of it. As I mentioned, I'm 40. The time on my biological clock is about 11:50PM. So, my sleeve is re-scheduled (first date was cancelled due to a small area of erosion discovered in my EGD- now on Prilosec) for the 3rd week of August. I started at 257lbs, and am now 248. I'm working out intensly with a trainer 3 days a week to get myself in optimal shape before surgery. My goal is 145-150. I can't wait to get the VSG, but also to recover and get back to the gym and lift weights again. I'm sure I'll sag, but I'm going to have crazy muscles underneath! Good luck to all!

Good going, guys! Sadly, when I look at the number of "views" to this post, I see that it is still a subject that people shy away from.

Awful. What a d*ck. I wouldn't go back to him in a million years. I don't care if he's a brilliant surgeon. There are other brilliant surgeons out there who will give you the respectful care you deserve. Tell him why you're leaving his practice, and write a letter to the CEO of the hospital. Also, out his name on this website and others (and tell him that you are doing that). Bad word of mouth is very effective and may do double duty of hurting his bottom line while saving others the unprofessional and demeaning behavior that you suffered. At least he'll think twice before opening his big insensitive mouth next time. Hang in there!

I'm sure your husband has one or 2 physical flaws that make him feel self-conscious; every time he mentions your hair, just casually ask him when he's going to address that unibrow, nose hair, love handles, grey pubes- whatever! Stare at his gut (or whatever) for a moment with one eyebrow lifted, silently shake your head before going back to your book... Be consistant- he'll get the message! :thumbup1: Another suggestion is just laying down the law. Tell him that you don't want to hear ONE MORE WORD about your hair- that you consider his hounding comments to be unsupportive, disloyal, and destructive. Tell him that for EACH and EVERY single future comment from this point on, you will go to the hair salon and have one inch cut off. Make sure that you follow through immediately. Go and DO IT. It should only take one trim for him to get the message that you are serious, and that you've had it with his unsupportive immature bullsh*t. He's supposed to be in your corner- not making you feel worse about something you already feel bad about and cannot control. Good luck!

Try some Bacitracin ointment. It will lubricate the scabs/incisions while fighting off infection. Cover lightly with some gauze or bandaid if you want to prevent them getting linty from your clothes, or getting ointment on your clothes.

I ADORE Coronado! Lucky sis! I'd love to meet you! :smile1:

If I could just afford to live soley on sushi, I wouldn't NEED the sleeve...

I agree with 3636Millie and Katt. Once in a VERY blue moon, surgical patients suffer from anesthetic awareness- basically, being physically paralyzed yet awake and aware during the procedure, hearing and feeling everything. A living nightmare, as one could imagine. They are unable to convey their awareness and powerless to do anything about it. These patients almost always require intensive treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). Although, thank God, your procedure was aborted and the event corrected quickly, I agree with those who recommend that you find a therapist who specializes in PTSD. Should you choose down the line, to retry a VSG (with a well-researched, well-renouned bariatric surgeon in a well-renouned bariatric practice, here in the US), be upfront about your past experience, so they can give you the psychological care and preparation that you will need.

I stand by my theory that you weren't given midazolam. We give it in ICU extremely frequently, almost excusivly IV, and in all my years, I have NEVER even heard of a reaction such as you described. The paralytics given before intubation produce EXACTLY the results you describe. They intended to give you midazolam, they TOLD you that they gave you midazolam. They were trying to cover their asses by asserting that YOU had a bad reaction. You didn't. They gave you the wrong drug. Find an anesthesiologist or CRNA and show them your post and my response. They will shake their head and agree with me. Another bit of proof that I'm right: midazolam/Versed has a strong amnesia quality. Having one's diaphragm paralized is a horrible sensation (as you know). That is why Versed is used- to sedate (make it bearable), and to ensure that the patient doesn't remember the incident to be haunted by it later. If you'd been given it, you would NEVER remember this incident.

ROTFL! In the words of Bart Simpson "it both sucks, AND blows!"

Hi Jane, I wrote in her other thread (Disappointed with this site), MY opinion of what actually happened in that OR. I don't think she had a bad reaction to the drug Midazolam. I think she had exactly the RIGHT reaction to a neuromuscular blockading drug, that they gave to her accidentally at the wrong time in the pre-anesthesia process. I don't think she ever got the Midazolam in the first place. It was a mess in there.

Right there with you on a gut (no pun intended) level, but intellectually and professionally, I know that obesity is a METABOLIC disease. If you had Type 1 diabetes, would you feel ashamed? The problem is, the larger medical community is only just STARTING to recognize obesity as a metabolic disease process, and general society is in the dark ages, putting out messages 24/7 that we are lazy, stupid, dirty, and free game to be ridiculed. We are pioneers, my friends, and as the last minority to suffer publicly-sactioned bigotry and discrimination, we WILL overcome. Did that sound preachy? :thumbdown:

Merci, Judy! My VSG was cancelled at the last minute (see thread in Stories section), but I'm really glad we got the Advanced Directive out of the way and in the bag. Even before the VSG was a gleam in our eye, we knew (just based on my work) that we should have them. At least that's one less worry when I get rescheduled. :thumbdown:

I'm in a similar boat, Carol! Check out my thread in the stories section. Hang in there!

Hi! It took me a moment to find your original post. For me, I usually try to put something in the title that indicates what is in the body of the post. I think if you had entitled your thread "I almost died on the table," you would have gotten a landslide of responses. I don't read every thread- just the ones who's titles and opening sentences grab me. That's my defense. Having said that, HOLY FRIGGING SH*T, honey! I'm SO sorry that happened to you. I am going to tell you this right now: you were NOT given Versed/Midazolam. That is a benzodiazapine (I'm a nurse) that has ZERO paralytic or even respiratory depressive qualities. Even if you had an extreme allergic reaction, it would NOT manifest that way. Let me tell you what that incompetent anesthesiologst/CRNA DID give you: a paralytic. Something like etomidate, pancuronium, rocuronium, vecuronium, succenylcholine etc... These are neuromuscular blockades that paralyze you (AFTER you've been comfortably sedated with an anxiolytic like Midazolam) to allow for intubation (putting in the breathing tube that protects your airway during the surgery). The laryngoscope wasn't protecting your tongue (no one bites their tongue in real life- thats a TV/movie thing), but getting your tongue out of the way so they could intubate you. Those incompetent bastards nearly killed you, they knew it, they were freaking out KNOWING that they did it, trying to cover their assess by not ADMITTING that they gave you the wrong med at the wrong time, out of sequence (probably didn't have their syringes properly labeled) and you're left traumatized with a world of questions. In an american hospital, mistakes happen too, but there are so many procedures in place (time outs, reviews reviews reviews, charting charting charting...) to A)prevent these errors, and B)to make sure they are NOT covered up but turned into learning experiences and new policies to prevent recurrence... THIS is why, no matter how good the doc and hospital, I would not go out of country for a procedure. And no, you probably have no recourse. If you still feel you need the VSG, be open to it, but find a REPUTABLE US surgical practice. Bottom line, as an ICU nurse, what actually happened to you, based on your description, was what I described. I am SO SO sorry that it happened to you, and hope that you will give the folks on this forum an opportunity to express the same (your title for this thread grabbed me! I'm sure it will grab others). Hang in, good luck.

Yes, OMG, Holy Sh*t, It WAS really happening... until yesterday afternoon, the DAY before my scheduled surgery, when I was told that my EGD (endoscopy-done last Friday) showed some ulceration. After a back-and-forth of phone calls, emails, and faxes between the EGD doc, my surgeon (in NYC at the time), his scheduler, and the nurse practitioner, it was decided that my surgery is cancelled. Did I mention that all of this craziness was LESS THAN 24hrs BEFORE my actuall surgery? Did I mention that I have been on a THREE-WEEK liquid DIET???? By the time the RNP called me back for the final confirmation of what we then already knew, my husband and I were knee-deep in sushi trying to consol ourselves. I hadn't even eaten that day because all of this happened as we were on our way into the practice for my final weigh-in. The stress and sense of depression were overwhelming for both of us. Neither of us could even sleep well last night (I, not working today, slept until 1pm; he just got back from work and is napping like the dead). The liquid diet, the emotional rollercoaster, the moodiness, irritability, stress, indecision, elation of finally making the decision and feeling good about it and ready to do it, the sobering and emotional task of making wills and advanced directives, the scheduling and rescheduling of both of our work.... and the bubble pops 20hrs before surgery. So, here I am. I have a roof over my head, a hot handsome husband who loves and supports me, a good job that supports me, family, living in a beautiful part of the country, and now aware of health issues that never would have been detected and addressed this early had I not gone through all of this. I'm 11 lbs lighter with a new commitment to the gym, thanks to this hellish pre-op journey, and, after 1 month on Prilosec and a clean EGD, I can be cleared again for the VSG, a healthier surgical candidate than I was before. So, as I sit here, feeling dazed and like I've been through a war, I'll try to remember all of those positives. I'm a lucky woman with a very luxurious disease given the predicament of 90% of the world's population, and I have the luxurious means to healthcare, also given the predicament of 90% of the world's population (including many right here in the USA). My plan is to suck it up, and stick to a healthy low fat diet, and get back to lifting weights (was too lethargic on the liquid diet), with the goal of being down 8 more lbs by the time of my next EGD. I'll keep coming to this forum, and I thank you all for listening and supporting and being a positive and extremely helpful part of this journey. I wish all of you the best in your journeys.

Thank you SO much, all of you. Please keep me in your prayers, as I am feeling very depressed over my surgery being CANCELLED at the last minute!!! I'll post a new thread with the details. Your words of support are very much appreciated and I'm sending mine right back to you. God bless.

Hi Folks, I just posted a new thread in the Story section about the fact that I'm having my VSG tomorrow. I wanted to post on the subject of advanced directives, as I haven't seen it addressed yet. I am an ICU nurse, and cannot BEGIN to tell you all of the heinous, awful situations I have witnessed and participated in, because a patient failed to tell his/her relatives/friends what he/she wanted in the event of being incapacitated with a life-threatening illness. I have seen patients put through painful, wasteful, and pointless procedures for WEEKS, that served not to prolong their life, but their death. I have seen families ripped apart because they didn't know what mom wanted. I have seen brothers and sisters accusing each other of making dad suffer vs. killing dad. Agonized discussions about organ donorship. We nurses and doctors are human; we HATE prolonging suffering and death. We want to give our patients dignity and comfort. Surgery is not without risk. No one thinks that they will be the 0.4% mortality. No one thinks that they will be the one to throw a clot, have a debilitating stroke, be consigned to a ventilator for life, etc... I am going through with this surgery tomorrow. I am rolling the dice that I will not be the 0.4%. If I am, however, I want my husband to be as supported as possible by knowing he is carrying out MY wishes. My sister and her family will be on board too. They will be able to have one less agonizing decision to make and be spared a lifetime of guilt wondering if they should or shouldn't have done this or that. Your families deserve the same. Take care of yourselves, take care of your family. Make out a will and an advanced directive prior to surgery. Your hospital will provide you with one upon request for free. Fill it out, sign it, notarize it, bring it with you. Please. Thanks.