RickM

This would really be a question for your RD or surgeon about this specific product, but at this point, I doubt that you have any real need for a special pre workout meal or snack - it is unlikely that you would be working hard enough yet to need anything special this early, and it is probably inappropriate to be working that hard yet (work back up to it.) At around four months, I needed something because I was hitting a wall after about an hour in the pool. After consulting with the RD who suggested the classic pre workout snack of fairly high complex carbohydrate, moderate protein and low to moderate fat, I settled on a small meat and cheese sandwich and hour or so before and that did the trick. No special commercial potions were required. My suggestion would be to start working out again slowly, within your doctor's guidelines, ramping things up over time as you build strength and energy, and see how things go. Then address any issues you have as you come across them rather than "pre-medicating" with something that you don't need yet. Good luck,

That sounds fairly normal - we can usually eat more volume as time progresses. This doc gives a fairly common progression from his experience, and it is consistent with mine: I think that one of the key factors over this time - the later months of our loss phase - it's not what we can eat, but what we should eat. I could probably eaten more, but I continued to weigh and measure what I was eating, and maintaining consistency on that until I needed to increase my intake to slow things down and go into maintenance. It looks like you know where your weaknesses are, and that is what you need to work on in the long term, or they can take over again. This doc has some good ideas for the long term (though I don't buy everything he says - still not sure about his green smoothies!) but my takeaway from it is to fill that additional capacity that you are finding with bulkier, high nutrition, lower calorie veg as a means to keeping your calories under control as your capacity increases. Once you get to goal, you can shift things some towards lower nutritional density foods to increase calories to stabilize things. I continue to do that, with a menu that has a spectrum of foods with varying nutritional densities, I can make adjustments as needed to increase or decrease my calorie intake to keep things stable. Note that lower nutritional density does not necessarily mean junkier food, but ones that still have good nutritional value, but just higher in calories - think either higher fat content foods or some of the starches or whole grains - still good useful food, but less dense nutritionally than say, green veg or lean meats.

As noted, it can be very individual, but my gut feel from being around these places for years is that it high for the majority of people. I was probably touching that sometimes at that point, but I was losing 10 lb per month consistently and within 10 lb of my goal weight, so I was trying to ramp up my consumption to slow my loss and ease into maintenance (and I have a guy's metabolism, which tends to let us get away with more.) How is your weight loss going? How close to goal are you? Do you have any idea how much you were consuming before surgery when your weight was stable (i.e. what was your total metabolism)? For many people, 1500 calories, give or take a bit, will be their maintenance level. In short, your current loss rate and how far you are to goal should be the major determining factors. Also, be aware that typically, our loss rate tends to decrease over time as our total metabolism tends to decline as we lose weight (it simply takes fewer calories to move 200 lb around than 200, and fewer still to move 150 lb, etc., so it is usually best to avoid increasing our intake over time until we are ready to stop losing. Good luck,

IIRC, my surgery was scheduled a month or two out, but that can vary from practice to practice depending upon how busy they are, and now we have Covid getting in the way, and if you were cancelled due to weather, that's another complicating matter - so it's really anybody's guess in your case. Pre-op diets also vary markedly - we didn't have any other than the day before surgery - but most typical is a week or two for those that have them. Those that do them can also waive or modify the requirement if scheduling dictates, and depending upon the patient's situation (have you already been dieting for insurance purposes, is your weight on the "moderate" side, have you had a clear liver ultrasound, etc.) If your surgery was just cancelled, then I would expect that you already would have known about whatever preop diet requirements that they have, and they would remain the same.

The RNY and partial gastrectomy are fundamentally the same thing, differing mostly in preferred limb lengths and whether or not a remnant stomach is left behind, so it really shouldn't be any different than a normal RNY recovery. I assume that it is a gastric tumor, and that they are removing the entire remaining stomach beyond the pouch they form. I have seen a couple of others over the years in these forums who had no remnant stomach and they didn't seem to be markedly different than any other RNY veteran. The one question that I haven't seen addressed before (I never really asked, either) is whether there are any particular consequences or risks with not having that remnant stomach there (other than removing the technical reversibility of the procedure)? The only thing that I can think of is maybe increased risk of bile reflux from not having the stomach acid there to neutralize the bile, but that's just speculation on my part. Good luck in everything coming out well...

You've already had some post op labs? That's good, as I don't think that our first ones were until three months. Assuming that all is good - iron complex and B12 would be the most relevant, then the next simple thing to try is on the diet front. Our early diets are often low in carbohydrates, even if one isn't trying to do that, but that is our first line of energy. Some programs specifically have things like oatmeal, cream of wheat, unsweetened applesauce and the like in their early diets to combat fatigue problems. That might be worth a shot, within your program's guidelines.

That looks just fine. Your protein might be a touch low for a guy, but in the ballpark overall (programs often have numbers like 60-80g for women and 80-100g for men, but generally men need a bit more owing to our typically greater lean mass/musculature.) I was aiming for 100-105 for the lean mass that I had and was trying to maintain, but my program was fine when I was at 90+, wanting me to add more veg at that point (which was only a couple of weeks out.) Things aren't all that precise in the nutrition world, so ballpark is usually fine! Actually, the "low carb, low fat" part is rather redundant, as any of our post op diets are by default low carb and low fat if we keep to our typical protein goals and keep the calories in a sensible range for weight loss (usually 1000 calories or less). People often get caught up in some of the magical macro limits or ratios promoted by some of the popular fad diets, but those just don't make any sense in our bariatric world. They might make sense (but usually don't) against a typical American/Western diet of 3-4000 calories, 300+g carbohydrates and 150+g fats, but our WLS and early post op restriction takes care of that. Tracking your intake is great, as that gives you a reference point of what you are doing and how that relates to what you may do in the future, and can help point out some of those "WTF - that's so not worth the calories" moments. I basically controlled to my protein and calorie goals, and worked to get as balanced and healthy a diet within the non-protein side, which in retrospect turned out to be a rough caloric split between fats and carbohydrates, though that wasn't a specific goal. As a side note, I found the tracking data to be particularly useful in finding my maintenance point after getting to goal weight, as it told me how many calories I was consuming in those final months, and relating that to my loss rate during that time, gave me a ballpark figure on where I should be to keep my weight stable - much better than any of those online calculators as this was based on real world data on...me! Good luck on your continued progress.

Sadly, it happens - more frequently a few years ago (6-10) when most bariatric surgeons were still learning how to do sleeves than more recently, but I guess that there are always some who are still learning! The sleeve tends to want to bend in the middle, or form an hourglass shape, if it isn't done quite right, it may not yield a total blockage type of stricture, but it can leave the narrowing that can impede the flow and/or exacerbate reflux problems. While most surgeons in the US are now far enough up the learning curve to usually avoid this problem, knowing how to fix it can be beyond their experience, hence many prefer to go with a bypass instead. It may be possible to correct your sleeve, but you may need to find a surgeon who is very well experienced with the care and feeding of the sleeve construction. My suggestion, if you want to go for a second opinion (which I think anyone should do when considering a revision,) is to book a virtual consult with Dr. Ara Keshishian, who happens to be on the wrong coast for you, out in Pasadena, CA, but he has been doing virtual initial consults for years before Covid as he has patients all over the country. This will at least give you a reading as to whether this is a viable option in your case, or give you confidence that the RNY approach is the best. If a resleeve is an option, then you can decide whether to travel across the country, or seek out another surgeon closer to you who can do it. I would suggest looking for one who routinely does the duodenal switch (DS) procedure, as they tend to have the longest and most extensive experience with sleeves. I believe that there are at least a couple in FL, and several further north along the East Coast. If you do choose to proceed with the RNY route, do discuss things carefully with your surgeon, as there are tradeoffs in how he proceeds. Limb lengths, as suggested above, are a compromise as if they are too short to minimize malabsorption, you can be more prone to bile reflux. There are several Facebook groups that cater to total and partial gastrectomy patients (primarily for cancer or gastroparesis) and bile reflux is one of their common complaints. When I was considering such a thing a few years ago, the surgeon I was dealing with said that as long as he kept the limb over a certain dimension (80cm, IIRC) then they saw no problems with it. Hopefully, the surgeon that you are dealing with has enough experience on both the WLS and non-WLS side of it to know those tradeoffs. Bariatric programs that are associated with major cancer center hospitals readily "swing both ways" on that, but one that only specializes in bariatrics may not. I wouldn't worry too much about the malnutrition issue, as the RNY is very well understood; it is somewhat fussier than your sleeve in supplement needs but things are pretty straightforward on it if you keep up with labs and change things up as those dictate; it can be problematic for those who get overly casual about such things and let it slide - then you can get into trouble. If you fall into that camp, then I would try to do everything to preserve your sleeve and its greater flexibility; otherwise, the RNY is a good alternative. My personal preference, as I was faced with some similar decisions, is/was to stick with the sleeve if it is viable, as the RNY (or something different) is always an option for the future, but once one has an RNY, changing things gets more difficult, so options are fewer. Also on the option front, with the bypass, there remains a "blind" remnant stomach along with the duodenum and upper intestine which are unavailable for endoscopic evaluation or treatment (things much be done surgically.) As there are an increasing number of procedures that can be done endoscopically these days, and into the future, and I have already had one lifesaving endoscopy this is an option that I am keen to preserve, if at all possible. Short term, you may lose too much as you go through the high level of restriction that comes in those first few months after surgery. In that case, there are ways to "eat around" your pouch by basically doing all of the "wrong" things for your WLS - drinking calories, eating slider foods, higher calorie options particularly fats as tolerated. The tricky thing is to avoid making too much of a habit of it as the restriction does diminish over time and you can naturally eat more of conventional foods to maintain your nutrition

I, too, am much in the camp of working on your long term lifestyle rather than a short term weight goal. When I started having to do that six month insurance thing, I looked at what should my diet, and overall lifestyle, be in five or ten years - not six months from now. Basically what an RD would tell anyone they should do to live and feel better and longer - food pyramid, my plate, etc. all represent a basic healthy diet of leaner meats, more fruits and veg, whole grains instead of the overly refined/processed white flour stuff, minimize sugars and in particular - junk foods (high calorie, low nutrition) whether they be high carb or high fat - or frequently both. It was not perfect to any one particular standard, but it was what I could do, and thus, more sustainable than any "book" diet. It was also an evolution (and still is) as I worked to drive my preferences in the right direction. I also started with going to the gym (local Y) and got back into swimming, which I had always liked before, and found I liked playing with the weights. That was fifteen or so years ago, and I am still at it, though in a somewhat evolved form (particularly during Covid!). But the lesson here, much as with diet, is to make it something that you enjoy (or at least tolerate) and make it a habit. It can certainly evolve, as you say with starting out with just walking. Carve out the time to do something, and let the activity evolve with your ability, interests and circimstances. I had no particular weight goal in mind for this phase, but as I noted, it was an exercise in developing better habits for the long term. As it turned out, I dropped around 50 lb, or about a third of my excess, in that six months which caused a rethink on the surgery idea, at least for a while - but that is another story. I suspect that I would not have done as well if I had been aiming fora specific pre op weight goal.

Typically, you stop eating after midnight before any gastric procedure (surgery, endoscopy, etc.) which allows plenty of time for the stomach to empty. For surgeries or procedures that work farther down in the intestines or colon, they will usually do a liquid diet the day before, sometimes with a laxative bowel prep, to clean out the rest of the GI tract if that is needed. So, if you continue your specified liquid diet, your cheat secret will be safe.

For treating a regain problem, I prefer the DS as it is stronger metabolically than either the VSG or RNY - the RNY is too close to the VSG in strength to reliably offer a significant improvement in weight loss, from what I have seen over the years. Figure maybe 20lb loss on average - about what one would expect from going through all the intense dieting associated with going through surgery again. (There are some who do significantly better, bit it seems to be more a function of their determination to "make this work" or "not screw it up again" than the actual surgery itself. Call it something like a surgical placebo, lol.) By your surgeons not finding the codes for the DS implies that they are talking about the newer SIPS/SADI/"loop DS" which is a single anastomosis adaptation of the traditional BPD/DS (biliopancreatic diversion) which has been routinely covered by US insurance and Medicare for the past 14-15 years, but is a more complex procedure that relatively few bariatric surgeons perform. Some practices that do the SIPS/SADI use the BPD/DS billing codes which is technically insurance fraud, but if they're comfortable doing it, that's their concern. Revising the VSG to a DS, of either flavor, is straightforward as each use the VSG as its basis (some don't even consider it a revision, more a "completion" of the ultimate configuration.) The strong point of the BPD/DS is its regain resistance - regain is possible as it is with any of these procedures, but it is harder. I know many with the DS who are 10-20 years out (my wife included) who are still maintaining a healthy weight; some are up a bit more and working on losing their "Covid 19" - just like "normal" people but major regains are relatively uncommon. The SIPS/SADI type of DS seems to fall somewhere in between the VSG/RNY and the BPD/DS - I have seen a few in the various forums who have had it and seem to be doing well with it, but it doesn't have as long a history. Any of these procedures - the RNY, DS or SIPS - will be somewhat fussier and less care-free than your VSG when it comes to supplements and follow up; the RNY is maybe a bit less so, but one can get into some serious trouble with any of them if one slacks off. If keeping up with supplements and annual labs is not an issue with you, then any of them should be fine.

Curious. I have seen a couple of sleevers over the years have that problem, but doe seem to be unusual, particularly compared to acid reflux (isn't it nice to be "special"?) but it doesn't seem to be any more prevalent with us than with the general population. It seems that most anyone can be subject to it on an occasional basis; it's the chronic condition that is problematic, so I guess that you continue to monitor things and see how it goes. There are tests that they can do to determine if this is a chronic thing and if something needs to be done, so keep on them about it if it continues to be a bother. There was one gal a few years ago whos surgeon revised her to an RNY to treat it, which seemed odd given its' predisposition toward it, but it seemed to work (at least initially - like most, she dropped off the forums after a few months) so presumably the surgeon did everything in the RNY toolkit to avoid it. The better approach if things are that bad is to revise it to a DS as that is as good of a cure as one can find (it puts the stomach and bile ducts at near opposite ends of the GI tract, so it's virtually impossible for the two to mix), but most bariatric surgeons don't know how to do that one. Hopefully, you don't need to go so far as a surgical solution. Good luck!

Over the years on these forums, it's not something that we see a lot of, though it does pop up occasionally (as it does in the non-WLS "normal" population.) What procedure did you have? It is something of a predisposition with the RNY pouch style of procedures, as the pyloric valve has been taken out of the main flow and the stomach access has been moved downstream of the bile ducts, but from what I have seen it is more common amongst patients who have had the procedure for non-WLS reasons (gastroperesis or gastric cancer typically) and the surgeons keep the limbs short to minimize weight loss; usually if the limbs are of typical weight loss length it doesn't present a problem. The mini bypass has historically been associated with bile reflux problems, though there are claims that they have developed techniques to minimize it for that as well.

Most likely not, as the MGB has never been accepted by the ASMBS and few, if any, US insurance policies cover it as it usually still falls under the "Experimental/Investigational" label. The only ones routinely covered in the US (with Medicare as the primary guideline) are the RNY, DS, VSG and lapbands. For a long time the DS was classed as experimental, but once Medicare accepted it, the private insurance companies could no longer use that dodge to avoid coverage.

I set my initial weight goals based upon the gross assumption that all my loss would be fat, and needed to get to a healthy body composition, and then reworked that as I got closer and got better figures on what was actually happening (hey, we engineers do that all the time, making assumptions to get us in the ball park, and then circling around to get a closer solution as more information is gathered.) As it turned out, I lost about 10 lb of lean mass in the process and adjusted the scale weight goal accordingly; the body composition goals remained the same (for me, a mid-teens fat percentage, which is on the leaner side of normal for men, depending upon whose chart one uses.)

I settled in at around 1100 within the first month, which was comfortable and worked well with my guy metabolism - I had been stable before surgery at 2500+ so I had confidence about having a decent caloric deficit for continued weight loss and maintained that level throughout my loss phase. YMMV. I am somewhat suspicious of programs that ramp up calories on a schedule over time, as our natural inclination is for weight loss to decline over time as we get lighter - we naturally burn fewer calories as we have less weight we are moving around 24/7. I recognize that there are multiple hypotheses about metabolisms and weight loss, but there also seems to be little strong consensus on it, either. I have seen good overall good results from many on these forums over the years doing programs in the 6-800 calorie range, and there are many who seem to stall or go into maintenance early on 1200+ calorie programs. Yet we also see some success at higher levels, or reports of that breaking stalls. Take these under consideration while trying to understand how your body is working, but my inclination would be to keep things on the lower side. At my six month follow up with our RN program director, she was wanting me to cut back my exercise as she felt I was losing too fast (which I wasn't going to do as I was basically working at my semi-normal activity levels,) but by the end of that month (it was November,) I was within ten pounds of my goal weight, and losing a consistent ten pounds per month, so I started ramping up my calories to slow things down (I basically let the holidays happen...) which stretched those last ten over two months instead. I never controlled carbohydrates, net or otherwise, or fats, but sought to get the best overall nutrition from the non-protein side of my diet, but in those later months carbs typically ran in the 100-120 range; I had selectively increased my complex carb intake at around four months for energy management purposes (I was running out of gas in the pool after an hour) which did the trick without any effect on loss rate.

We had no specified limits or goals on macros other than protein. If you think about it, this makes sense as if you get in your requisite protein, and your calories are low enough to facilitate the desired weight loss, then it really doesn't matter what your fat or carb macros are (leave that for the fad dieters) as both will be quite low. As an example, if you are following the common 6-800 calorie post op diet (or even 1000,) with 60-80 g protein and totally ignore the other macros, you may be around 50-60g of carbs; does that make any functional difference to the magical 40g (or 30, or20) promoted by some of the popular fad diets? No. Against a typical Western/American diet that is often 300+ g of carbohydrates there numbers may make some sense (primarily that it represents a lot of calories...) but typically for us post op, it doesn't make any difference. Concentrate on learning to eat a healthy, sustainable diet that includes your typical fruits, veg, leaner meats, nuts, whole grains instead of the processed white flour junk, and in general bypass the junk foods (high calorie, low nutrition) and you will be miles ahead of those who agonize over macro counts and ratios (and most likely, a fair bit lighter in the long run. Good luck...

I sounds like you just aren't quite ready for those yet, even if they are on your plan. You may have more inflammation in your stomach than most, which restricts the thicker (or sometimes even the thinner) things more than others experience. I had yogurt (and purees, etc.) in the hospital without problem, but others on the same plan couldn't handle them. Our general rule was to try new foods one at a time to test for tolerance; if it worked, great, if not, try it again in a week or two.

Try chewing on some ice chips, or freeze, or partially freeze your protein drinks, Jello is usually acceptable on a liquid diet - make it with unflavored protein powder, or with a compatible flavored protein drink. Anything that is liquid by the time it hits your stomach is usually OK. If you can, talk to your RD about adding some crunch or chewies to your diet that would be in compliance.

I am certainly no expert on this (not even an MD!) but what I have learned over the years in this is that obesity is one major factor in liver disease, much of which is reversible if the obesity is reversed, so you are on the right road here. It is not surprising that he found some liver damage - it's fairly common in our obese population (and is why many surgeons impose those "liver shrinking" pre-op diets. My surgeon started out doing liver transplants, and moved into adding bariatrics as a means of treating the disease before it gets to his transplant table. Again, you are on the right path to helping yourself. Now, rapid weight loss imposes an additional stress on the liver as it is a key component in metabolizing all that fat that we are losing, so it would not be unusual for liver numbers to be wonky during this phase. This also means that we should avoid adding any more stress to the liver during this time, so that means avoiding alcohol while you are losing weight (preferably longer than that or even forever, but at least during the loss phase.) This is not a temperance or morality play, but just our physiology (we frequently get new posters in these forums, a couple of weeks out from surgery asking when they can start drinking again...) Talk to your surgeon about this when you see him again, but I suspect that you will get much the same story from him. If he is real concerned, he may send you to a hepatologist (liver doc) but most likely it will be something that is just monitored for a while and correct itself as your weight comes off and stabilizes.

I prepared in basically the same way as I prepared for life without surgery, as our long term post op lifestyle should be a basic healthy diet with moderate or more activity. I started when my wife was leading up to her WLS (and was intending to get mine shortly thereafter) and we had to do the semi-typical 6 month insurance diet and exercise program to qualify. Our intent was to move our diet toward what it should be five or ten years on - basically what an RD will usually direct you for a healthy life -leaner meats, more fruits and veg (preferably fresh), whole grains in preference to refined white flour products, minimize the sugars and cut down/out the junky foods (high calorie/low nutrition stuff, whether those calories come from carbohydrates or fats.) We shifted the diet over to the extent that we could - it wasn't perfect, but it was sustainable, which is a key factor - this is your forever diet (though it can, and should, evolve.) It turned out the I lost about a third of my excess weight in those six months or so, and questioned the need to go with the surgery, at least at that time (my wife went ahead with it as she was much more in need of it) so I just continued, making tweaks to the diet to get it closer to a tolerated ideal. I lost a bit more here and there but maintained that original loss over several years before deciding to go ahead with the surgery to finish the job (the VSG had become accepted and insurable in that interim time, which it wasn't at the beginning - the DS that I was considering originally would have been overkill after my life changes. Over that same time, we joined the Y to get more active (it stuck with my a lot better than with her!) and I took up swimming again, which I had done before in younger days, and started playing with some weight training which became part of my routine - you need to find something that you will continue to do long term. fifteen years later, and I am still at it (though COVID has gotten in the way this past year, so things evolved again.) When I had the VSG done, I made relatively few changes to accommodate the transition. Protein is a bigger emphasis during that phase when you can't eat much, but I always still made an homage to my fundamentally healthy, balanced diet in the non-protein side of the diet, and the exercise was cut back during the healing phase, but ramped back up again, and beyond, as the weight came off. The net result is that my diet and lifestyle is little different than it was before, and this is an important factor as on of the most difficult things for those who follow the fad diets to "help" their WLS is the same thing as those who follow fad diets without surgery- the transition to "normal" once they're done dieting, as they never learned how to eat sustainably before. Even before COVID, I did not work as hard at the gym as I had earlier on, as we had gotten back into dogs, and with two pointers that need their daily exercise (they run, I hike) that has taken over some of my prior gym time - so things have evolved, but the activity is still there. I used to average an hour or so at the gym, alternating days in the pool and in the weight room, and with the dogs, it's more like a half hour, or sometimes it's entirely dog time if we do a longer hike in the morning.

Not at all, nothing wrong with what you are feeling. Some will have more inflammation in their stomachs than others, and they have more difficulty drinking/sipping than others. The instructions that are given to sip, sip, sip an ounce of water every 5, 10, 15 or whatever minutes is just a minimum rate to try for is you are struggling; if you can sip faster without distress, that's great. I was able to down a bowl of broth (6-8 oz?) and a juice box (4oz) within a half hour or so - in the hospital. In the same phase, my wife could barely drink her nominal 4 0z stomach size in one sitting. The doc wasn't worried with either, as they are both within normal expectations. Water should just flow on through with little restriction, but may be more restricted if you are more inflamed than others. Nothing is stretching as things are just flowing on through as they should. Continue sipping as too big of a gulp can hurt or come back up for a while, but you should be able to drink fairly normally within the month or whatever time the doc may say is ok (no chugging though!)

You certainly don't have to do keto if you don't want to (I never did) as people have been successfully negotiating their WLS for years, decades, before keto was ever dreamed of, and will continue to do so once that fad has faded, lol. What type of test(s) did they do for your body composition and BMR? Some work better than others, and they all have some flakiness when it comes to measuring obese, or formerly obese, people, but they can give a ballpark estimate of things. I am a bit skeptical of the 1200 calorie minimum for a woman of your size (height mostly) as there can be quite a variation in metabolic rates (which the test may or may not pick up) and it's not unusual to see women of your height maintaining in the 1200 range (and some may do so at 1600 or so.) I do understand that there are differing hypotheses and philosophies regarding metabolic set points and going too low means you stay low, etc., but there is also not a real strong consensus on this issue, either. My inclination would be to keep the calories on the lower side of their range, if not a bit lower, and see how that goes. I did fine at a consistent 1100 per day, but I have a decent guy's metabolism, and was losing at a consistent 10 lb per month after the initial quicker loss of the first three months. I am also maintaining in the 2000-2200 calorie range, so I had a fairly large caloric deficit to work from, which I doubt that you have given your height and gender. There is a general tendency for our loss to decline as we lose weight over the months, simply because we aren't moving alll of that excess weight around 24/7, so a slowdown should be expected, but it also means that there is a danger of going into maintenance early if our calories are too high, or worse, increase them over time as some programs suggest. Good luck!

Don't worry about being selfish, or taking resources away from the pandemic - if they need to cancel/postpone your procedure because they need the staff elsewhere to deal with the pandemic, they will do so. There was a time early on when it was "all hands on deck" in many places to help deal with the overload (while in other places many were twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do because all the elective procedures had been cancelled out of uncertainty as to how the pandemic would evolve, but hadn't hit their region yet and they had nothing to do.) Many hospitals are in financial distress these days because they haven't been doing many of the elective procedures that pays their bills (in the meantime, the insurance industry is fat and happy because of all of the "elective" treatments that have been put off. I have a nephew who works for a bariatric clinic, and their surgeons started lobbying the hospital in the early summer (or before) to let them start working again, as the bariatric business makes very little impact on the critical side of the hospital - they rarely have need for the ICU, and their patients are short term, a day or two, so if COVID cases did ramp up such that the hospital needed the capacity, they could easily shut down the WLS procedures and empty those beds within a couple days to make room. So, actually, you are doing them a favor and helping the health care system by having your procedure and helping to use the capacity that would otherwise go to waste.

The only ones that I have seen reversed over the years on these forums are in cases where there are significant complications where there was no other real choice; it's a complicated enough procedure that few seriously consider it just for the sake of buyers remorse (from what I can tell, many surgeons don't want to tackle it themselves, often referring the patient to someone more experienced with it.) It is not something taken lightly. What is the reason that you are considering a reversal?