NY Lou

bellabloom wow, what an incredible transformation, youre absolutely stunning! also great to see you maintain that weight loss years later. im 4.5 years out now and glad to have kept the weight off too. its not easy but making the right food choices and exercising is now a lifelong commitment. best of luck...

chilet071 You are beautiful before and after! Smoking hot!

hi everyone, what great before/after pics so many of you have! im 4.5 years post op and im happy that ive maintained my weight loss. heres my before pic at 323 lbs and a few pics of me from last week at 195 lbs. im actually running the boston marathon this year! im doing it for charity for the jimmy v foundation for cancer research as both my father and sister are cancer survivors. if anyone here has been affected by cancer feel free to click my donation link that follows this post and make a donation to a worthy cause. every dollar donated goes to cancer research and your donation is 100% tax deductible. wish everyone the best! heres the pics and the donation link: http://jimmyv.convio.net/site/TR/Endurance/General?px=1409952&pg=personal&fr_id=1370

thanks to all for your replies, and please keep them coming. its such a great thing to be able to hear from so many different people in this forum. not to mention its so informative as well. on a side note, i just found out that james gandolfini (tony from the sopranos) used my dr for surgery (see link below) back in 2008. if hes good enough for tony soprano, hes good enough for me :thumbup: http://showhype.com/story/news_james_gandolfini_hospitalized /

so i completed everything and went to my dr for the final vist on wed june 30 (just 2 days ago) and i thought that was the last visit and he was going to submit everything to the insurance co. but my dr said that the abdominal ultrasound showed my liver was very big and also, my blood sugar level was elevated. he also said i had a vitamin d and vitamin b1 deficiency. he has put me on a diet with the nutritionist to lose 15 lbs in the next 4 weeks, as well as having me take vitamin d 50,000 once a week. i also got a vitamin b1 shot and i also have to go back to my primary care dr and have him check into my sugar levels and see if he feels i need to take some medication for it or just watch what im eating to lower it. so now i have to wait another 4 weeks and go back to my wls dr and hopefully then everything will be ok to proceed. losing the 15lbs will be a piece of cake as i am a professional dieter anyway, just venting as its frustrating to have this delay. i guess its the way this all works and obviously my dr wants me to have surgery in the best possible health i can be in. take care everyone and thanks in advance for any replies.

so i asked my dr where he learned to do the sleeve. he said he taught himself after watching his partner do them and by also watching videos of other dr's who had done them. i guess he really learned while being in the operating room with his partner (who is the head of the bariatrics unit). my dr has done over 300 rny's, 100's of lapbands and 6 sleeves. he says he only had 1 leak ever, and that was in an rny patient. i also asked him if there were any deaths and he said 1, but that was a person who was getting a revision of a revision. he seems very honest and straightforward in all his answers. his 6 sleeve patients are all doing well. my dr works on one of the best bariatric teams in new york, which is the st lukes hospital bariatric unit, which is also a bariatrics center of excellence and a leading research center for bariatric surgery. their team is headed by dr julio teixeira, who has done thousands of wls and teaches other dr's. dr teixeira is also well known to do surgeries that many other dr's wont touch because theyre being done on patients at high risk and/or with complications. apparently hes that good. i dont know how many sleeves he has done. my dr is the no. 2 on his team and his name is dr james mcginty. my insurance has dr mcginty on my plan, but no other dr from that hospital is on my insurance as different dr's there take different insurance companies. im confident in my dr and he was the best and most experienced from all the dr's that were accepted by my insurance. what do you think about him saying he was self taught? im not really worried about him only having done 6 sleeves (this was discussed in a prior thread), im just concerned about what is considered the normal way for a dr to learn how to do the sleeve? any replies would be appreciated. ps - i did ask my dr a ton of questions about the sleeve and his procedure, including bougie size, how far from the pyloric valve does he start, leak testing and so on, and he answered them all to my satisfaction. and ive researched the sleeve so throughly that i knew what answers i should of gotten. he really seems to know what he is doing and i am very confident in using him, but i guess him saying he was self taught is making me think. ps - i edited this ps in later. i just found out my dr operated on james gandolfini (tony soprano) back in 2008 (see link below). so if hes good enough for tony soprano, hes good enough for me http://showhype.com/story/news_james_gandolfini_hospitalized /

dr. james mcginty 6 im curious to see what results are out there. im only looking for the number of sleeves done prior to yours, although feel free to mention how many rny or lapbands were done by them also. my hopefully upcoming sleeve will be done by dr. james mcginty and he has only done 6 sleeves, although he has hundreds of rnys done. kindly list your surgeon and approximately how many sleeves they did before doing your sleeve. if you already see your doctor mentioned in this thread, theres no need to duplicate it. thank you, as im trying to see approximately how much sleeve experience various dr's had prior to doing yours.

again thanks for all the replies. i have been researching the sleeve for quite a long time and ive decided that im going to continue forward and try to get the sleeve. im intelligent enough to know that ive been unsuccessful for 20 years in losing weight longterm, so the odds of being successful now are probably slim and none. my final meeting with my dr is on wed 6/30, in just 5 days and everything, including all tests and the psych are now complete. after that meeting he will submit to the insurance for approval. i guess i knew all along this was the right thing to do for me, but questions and concerns always linger in my mind. but if i wasnt planning on going through with this, i wouldnt of completed all the steps, tests, mandatory support group meetings, nutritionist meetings and the psych evaluation to be ready for insurance approval like i am now. i guess all of this second guessing is just a big step in me realizing i need help to get my weight under control. im tired of being tired. im tired of being overweight. im tired of telling myself im in pretty good shape for a 310 lb man, when in fact no man weighing 310 lbs is in good shape at all. thank you all again for your continued support. this forum is 100x better than any support group meeting ive attended. cant wait for the paperwork to be submitted for approval and i hope i get approved without having an insurance fight on my hands. take care everyone and as always, best of luck to all of you, whether pre-op or post-op.

i think the members of this forum have a better understanding of all of this than the psychologist does! and to globetrotter, you are 100 percent correct, the psychologist is tall and very thin. he has probably never experienced the struggle most of us here in this forum have been through. i think the answer is becoming clearer for me and the sleeve is the way to go. its only a matter of time before being 310 lbs catches up to me and my health starts going downhill. although i may not have the co-morbidities others at my weight may have, just carrying that weight around can't be doing my body any good. again, i appreciate all the replies from everyone. this forum is such a powerful support group for anyone considering or already having the sleeve surgery. thank you again so much to everyone, your input is priceless.

thanks again for everyones continued replies, theyre all appreciated and mean a great deal to me. to kabinkitty, i dont think the psych is trying to discourage me, i think hes just trying to make sure im ready for the surgery if its what i decide to do. it seems hes just putting all my options on the table and is basically asking me if i want to try on my own again, but this time with support from a psych who specializes in food behavior before trying the surgery. hes made it clear the final decision is up to me and will give me a letter of approval for the surgery because hes convinced ive done my research and know exactly what the sleeve entails, including the risks involved, as well as the aftercare necessary after the surgery to be successful. as far as 310lbs not being that high, i guess hes saying that because his experience with weight loss patients involved men who were much heavier than me. also, like you said about co-morbidities, im actually in pretty good health for someone weighing 310lbs (as crazy as that sounds!). im definitely leaning towards getting the sleeve as i kind of feel that if i was going to succeed on my own, i would of already in the last 20 years. again thanks to everyone who has chimed in, this forum and its members is a true blessing.

thanks mb20mom and mini-me for your replies. mini-me, the dr said he would give me the approval i need for surgery. he was just suggesting based on my history that he feels dealing with a psychologist that specializes in food behaviors might be the tool i need to keep the weight off when i lose it. in my heart i think the sleeve being a restrictive tool is my way of guaranteeing that when i lose weight, i would keep it off. its been a struggle to lose weight and then gain it all back so many times. at the age of 47 im definitely leaning towards getting the sleeve. i think the sleeve may be the best tool for me to succeed long term. i guess its kind of his job to play devils advocate and make sure ive tried everything before i have the surgery as he views the surgery as a last resort. but a big part of me feels after so many years of not keeping the weight off, this is a last resort. but not one as drastic as a bypass, which i would not consider now at all. i know the bottom line is i have to decide for myself whats best for me right now. its just nice to hear others opinions who have been through this struggle. thank you.