cookies

Best of luck! It won't be long before you're on the loser's bench.

Honestly, I don't think there's anything you can do. Muscle building helps fill areas "out", but if your skin has lost it's elasticity or if it's been stretched beyond a "bounce back" area, it will sag. Such is life. Pray for good genes.

Best of luck with your surgery. My revision is May 22nd and I'm getting excited/nervous. I hope you have a quick recovery.

Of course you're weak and fatigued; you just had major surgery! Take care of yourself, drink as much as you can, and rest and recuperate.

I would definitely stay out of a public pool or ocean until all your incisions are completely healed, and I doubt that would be the case at 2 weeks out.

I don't know what I'm going to tolerate after surgery, so I have a variety of stuff. I have... nectar chocolate (tub) (using this now) Nectar sample packs (14) Premier Protein shakes (two cases...I'm drinking these now as well) Protein Jello Protein pudding Protein hot chocolate (sugar-free) broth (low-sodium chicken) some protein shots Crystal light (a variety) sugar-free popcicles sugar-free jello babyfood applesauce (I can't swallow a pill, so this is to mix with my pill powder) gatorade (sugar free) propel (sugar free) decaf tea bags canned soups (for the second phase) and... Gas-X strips liquid Tylenol anti-bacterial shower gel

A 30% complication rate on procedures done together? Yikes. Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear the recovery was no big deal. I guess I'll take what comes and be happy my surgeon will do what's best for me.

I have a lap band that I got nearly 10 years ago. It's been non-fuctioning for virtually all of that time (all but about four months). Anyway, my surgeon initially told me that he could do the two procedures (removal of band and the sleeve) in one procedure UNLESS I had really bad scar tissue, in which case he'd have to just remove the band, let it heal, and do the sleeve as a separate procedure. I really thought I had taken that in and understood that, but as I now sit here two weeks from my operation, I'm getting fretful. I had my final pre-op appointment with my surgeon today and today he was like "It's more likely than not that you will not get your sleeve at the same time." ACK. I'm self-pay. My surgeon said that if he could do the two procedures together, he'd charge me just for the sleeve. If I have to have the second surgery it's going to cost me another $15,000, plus possibly another $10,000 on top of that. if I have to wait more than a month or six weeks between the two surgeries, because I would have to have my IVC filter removed...then another one put in for the second surgery. I want my surgeon to do what is best for me, and I don't want a leak. So I get that if two surgeries is best, that's what I need to do...but man. I was all psyched up and prepared for the sleeve. My house is full of everything I need, I have people coming into town to help me. I'm just having a pity party worrying about where I'm going to come up with the additional $15,000+ and it's really settling in that I'll probably need a second surgery and a second recovery period. Blech. And does anyone know what type of recovery time is needed after removal of the band alone? And what type of clear fluids regimen, etc. you were on after that?

We are expected to and advised to by our surgeon, but it's only mandatory for the RNY patients. I was told the same as the rest...we eat such a small amount of food that it's hard to get all the vitamins we need. The vitamins are insurance.

My surgeon doesn't normally do a leak test for his VSG patients. He did say, however, that if a person experienced lots of nausea and vomiting after the surgery, he would do one prior to the okay to have Water by mouth. He does test for leaks during the surgery by pumping the stomach full of a blue dye and they check our drain as well. It didn't concern me, his explanations made sense.

Remember that the pre-op diet's purpose is to shrink your liver, so although you may not be losing pounds, hopefully your liver is shrinking down, and that's the important part.

I think if you're seeing 8-plus grams of sugar and "no sugar added", you're probably looking at fruit juice popsicles. The regular no-sugar popsicles generally have like 2 grams of sugars or less (from sugar alcohols) and contain no fruit or fruit juice whatsoever. I don't know if fruit juice (especially the more acidic juices) would could as "clear" on the clear diet portion of our diets after surgery, so I plan to buy the non-fruit juice types.

Time Magazine did a similar article. They also noted that people using lower weights/higher reps were more likely to use proper form as they are not overstraining to try to lift a very high weight.

For me, personally, it's the smell that I hate. I"ve found if I refuse to breathe while sipping, I don't mind it so much. Might help you...I don't know.

Apparently, it's an urban legend and all skin graft skin comes from cadavers: http://plasticsurgery101.blogspot.com/2007/09/urban-legend-debunked-can-you-donate.html

Yeah, no data on that, but then again I don't think there's data like that on the lap band or RNY, either, as neither has been around for the 40-50+ years that would be necessary for that kind of data. I would imagine, since there's no malabsorption with the sleeve, that the longevity stats would be great. Certainly they would be better than the lifespan of a morbidly obese person.

That list of fears could have been written by me. I'm so happy you're journey has been so seamless so far. I'm hoping for the same.

Mine was in the $400 range. Around $450, as I recall. I'm self-pay.

Muscle does weigh more than fat. Of course, a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weight the same (ha!), but a CUP of muscle would weigh more than a cup of fat, or any such measurement you choose. And I agree on the "gained three pounds" of muscle thing overnight doesn't make sense. However, hard workouts that tax muscles do result in weight gain for some people because they retain Water while the muscle is healing, and then the water is released, usually within 24 hours.

I'm too scared to cheat. LOL. I want my liver to shrink, because I'm sure it's fatty. Every little thing that I can do to help ensure they don't have to stop my surgery for a bit to work on my liver because it was brittle and began to bleed I will do.

I started my pre-op dieet on the 1st. I had some tough days, but I'm feel pretty good now. I feel very busy right now. I've got all my usual stuff, plus a stack of pre-op appointments and this and that. That's good. Being busy means I spend less time worrying.

The scale says you're up from your start weight the day that you started nine days ago? Or you've been losing weight and just today your up? If the latter, that's normal. Our weight goes up and down all the time. Could be Water weight. If the former...that's odd. And how are you getting 1200 calories from just a single shake, a single salad, and popcicles and Jello? Are you using sugar free items? And low-fat dressing?

Oh take credit for EVERY. SINGLE. POUND. You lost it. It counts.

It gets better. I started mine on Sunday and I feel fine today. I had massive headaches and hunger in the beginning. Your body is probably going into ketosis (depending on your carbs); that can make you feel funky for a bit.

I just went to our patient education today and we were told during our Phase One (first week) not to drink more than eight ounces of Water in an hour because water is heavy and having a pouch full (even briefly) can put stress on the staple line. Of course, every doc is different, so YMMV.