julielle

The law says that you need one, some people manage to get by without one, but I wouldn't debate the need for one, I'd just order it. Besides, they're valid for a while so just consider it your incentive to take a trip to europe/asia/wherever after

I'm having it on the 8th as well

Not something to wear but I'll be happy when I stop getting claustrophobic just trying to fit into my bathtub.

I don't have any experience with general anesthesia, only with epidurals. I saw a Grey's Anatomy episode once where the person was under anesthesia but she could feel everything, she just couldn't move or communicate that she felt it. I think THAT would be my number one omgomgomgomg freak out. I mean this is my pain scale: 0: nothing. 10: Stub my toe. I mean I have no resistance to pain, everything hurts too much. My 2 year old head butting me = 10. Period cramps =... ok maybe a 7 since they're not constant. Stepping on a lego = 10. Waking up to a charlie horse = 10. I do not like pain, at all!

Ah it didn't go at all My flight to San Diego was cancelled for some reason (they wouldn't say), the next flight was full, and then Sandy was shutting down the airports so I wasn't able to get to the west coast. Had to reschedule, new date is Nov 8th.

Hi guys, I was scheduled to have surgery on October 28th, but on my way to Mexico I got stuck at Newark and had to turn back due to my flight being cancelled. So I'm rescheduled for November 8th, the surgeon was super nice and agreed to fit me in even though he was full that day (I'm going to see Jaime Ponce de Leon in Tijuana). So I get to do the 3 day yogurt fast again, ugh. It was so hard the first time, I'm not a huge yogurt eater and that's a bit much! I would have done anything for something salty towards the end! Chicken broth would have been heavenly. Anyways, so now I guess the stress starts again, it built up the week before my first scheduled surgery and now it's building up again. I tend to have panic issues in hospitals so I'm hoping I can make it through this without a panic attack (they're not triggered by pain, but more by feeling tied down, I'm claustrophobic and being tangled up in IV wires and not being able to be comfortable in the bed etc, they all add up to me hyperventilating and thinking that I'm going to die, fun times!). So a bit more about me, I'm 35, have 2 kids, a 6 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. I've been married for almost 14 years now (wow, can't believe that long!). We live near Montreal, Canada.. I'm a graphic artist, my husband is a scriptwriter for a video game company. We both spend way too much time in front of our computers! I'd love to lose about 160 pounds... I'm lucky in that I have no comorbidities (that I know of!) right now. I may have sleep apnea, who knows, I've never been tested for that. No diabetes though, and I figured I'd rather lose the weight now before I destroy my joints and develop other problems. I have for a long time told myself "I don't need WLS, I can do this myself", but I can never lose weight long term. I can lose it fine over a short term, but I just can't keep it off. Really hoping this is the solution!

Oooh I'll add you guys on MFP too when I start up, hopefully you won't shun me for being a filthy november sleever

Awww man, I want one incision! That rocks!

I remember when they took the staples out for my C-section I was dreading it and when it happened I didn't feel a thing. I didn't know they'd staple any of the external sutures though!

I would not use a hotel phone to call, I did that once in Vegas and got billed 70$ for a 20 minute conversation. Ouch. If you have a smart phone or an ipod touch or ipad etc, you can download an app like Google Voice and it'll let you make calls for free, it'll work just like a regular phone (you'll have a unique number for your google voice account so people can call you too). You can only set up Google Voice while you're in the US I think though so this will only work if you're actually preparing this ahead of time.

If there's wifi in your hospital and at your hotel, you could just use something like Google Voice, a voice over IP app. It will give you a phone number, and it will work as long as you have connection to the internet. And depending on the app, it's either free or very cheap (Google Voice is free). It will give you a phone number so people can call you. And you can call them. You can download the app to your smart phone, or I've even used my ipad (wearing headphones and holding my mouth up to the microphone). A laptop would work too. In that case though I'd probably think about getting a headset.

Hmmm sea salt doesn't sound too bad. Unless it's milky and white, in which case... blech. I'm sure I'm going to gag on it, I can't even drink Pepto Bismol without dry heaving.

I'm glad it's over for you Zenoosh, yay! How nasty was the leak test stuff? Any puking?

No it's that when we try to help you, you attack back and say we don't know what we're talking about. We tell you that what you're asking about is a revision to a DS, and you say no, I'm not asking about a revision to a DS, i'm asking about someone having the VSG and the DS at the same time. We state that it's not possible to have both at the same time, and then you say oh goodie I get to explain to you what the surgery is. If you don't understand what's wrong with this picture I don't know what to say to you. You don't seem to be grasping the basics. You only have one stomach. If you sleeve it, it's sleeved. If you go home and come back in a month and convert it to a DS, you now have a DS. You do not have a VSG and a DS. If you have a whole stomach that has no sleeve, and you decide to get the DS, then you still have a DS. You do not ever get the VSG and the DS "at the same time" That's why we're not understanding you. If you're looking for someone who has "both at the same time", you are probably referring to someone having a virgin DS (not a revision, someone who has never had a sleeve). In that case, that person would not be posting at a forum about vertical sleeves, because that's not the procedure they'd have. I hope that clears things up.

Agreed, I should know better!

We understand very well what a DS is, what you said is you wanted to know if someone had a VSG and a DS at the same time. Since you know so much about it you should know that the DS itself includes the VSG component, therefore someone either has a DS, or they have a VSG, they do not have "both", it's implied that the VSG is included in the DS as that is what the procedure is. You never hear someone say "I had a VSG and a DS on March 15". No, if they previously had a VSG then they had a revision to a DS. Not, as you stated "I'm asking if anyone had both at the same time, in Mexico." You're very condescending and it's really not warranted.

It's a big decision! My surgery was supposed to be today and got pushed back to Nov 8th, it was definitely a mix of huge disappointment mixed with a bit of relief!

Yes, VS = vertical sleeve, not DS. There is however a forum dedicated to DS on the Obesityhelp forums. I know a lot of people there have had the surgery done, honestly I have not heard of anyone talking about the DS surgery here. I was just trying to point you in a direction that you may get a reply, I am not sure if you'd get one here, I didn't want you to be discouraged and think that nobody had read or was responding to your post is all.

Yes but as I told you, you're better looking for that at Obesityhelp and not here, anyways, I tried to help and now i'll just shut up, I don't seem to be making myself understood.

True, but there was never any doubt that Dr Aceves was a great vertical sleeve surgeon, and as this is a vertical sleeve forum it would make sense that he'd have great reviews here. I just don't know if he's a great DS surgeon, from what I know it's a MUCH more complicated surgery, but I have not had it done myself, I chickened out at the cost But you may have more luck on the ObesityHelp forums since they're not geared to any one surgery like this one is.

Sorry I was just trying to help, I don't know that site much but when I was looking into the DS I read a lot on forums and everyone was saying to NOT get a doctor not on that list, they weren't affiliated with the site. So I figured they knew what they were talking about. That was the DS community at ObesityHelp by the way.

I seriously tried EVERYTHING, I tried to fly to Chicago, I said I'd take any flight to Los Angeles, to San Francisco, to Las Vegas... anywhere that I could at least get closer, and ALL the flights were full with about 20 people on the waiting list. Newark was not fun today, every single flight was totally full. The counter agent there tried to route me anywhere she could think of, chicago, atlanta, dallas, she even looked on other airlines, there was absolutely nothing available. She could have put me on standby for the next flight to San Diego but it was full and I wasn't the first person on the standby list, so that was a very small chance. (That flight did end up leaving at 3:30pm, the flight after at 5pm was also cancelled). I've spent the afternoon on hold, on hold 1.5 hours to speak to United, did get the flight refunded (WHOLE flight, woo). I did manage to book a new flight Nov 7th to 12th, very thankful to Dr Ponce who had NO availability those days but agreed to squeeze me in anyways! So this trip is 2 days longer than the one I was supposed to do this week, instead of having surgery on the same day I arrive I'll be having it the next day, so that will help, I'll be able to drink Water on the flight. And I'll have an extra day before I return, so I'll book a hotel in San Diego the night before my flight, so in the end I think it'll work out!

From what I've read, the only doctor in Mexico that's recommended for the DS is Dr Ungson. I don't think any of the other surgeons are recommended for that procedure. Here's the list of the recommended ones I found: http://www.dsfacts.com/duodenal-switch-surgeons.html

I've let my coordinator know, but I didn't have a deposit down so that's not a worry. Hopefully the airline credits me the WHOLE flight but they were talking like they only want to credit me half of it since I "used" part of it. Argh. Frustrating! It was all super well scheduled too where I would start my period next weekend, now if I switch for next week or whatever I'll have to deal with THAT too. Blech!

Well I'm supposed to be having my surgery today, but I'm sitting at home. I'm completely heartbroken over it, I got up this morning at 3:20am to catch my 5:15am flight from Vermont to Newark. Flight is on time, flight to Newark is uneventful. Get to Newark to check where my connecting gate is to San Diego, and see that my flight is cancelled. They cancelled it while I was in the air on the way to Newark (it's only an hour flight). Quickly went to the customer service desk to find out, they basically looked at me as if this was all my fault basically "You should have expected your flight to be cancelled, don't you know there's a monster storm on the way?". Well, yes. I've been watching the weather channel and following Sandy for days, I know it's not supposed to get bad in the NYC area until at least sunday night, why would I ever think an 8 am flight to the west coast would be in trouble? Not only that, My flight was the ONLY flight cancelled. All other flights were on time and leaving no problem. Los Angeles departed at 8:15 I think. San Francisco was no problem. Las Vegas no problem. Only my one flight. And they're trying to tell ME it's because of the weather and that I should have known better! At this point I'm in tears saying that I need to get there I'm having surgery! She looks and says there's no way I'm getting to San Diego, there's no way through Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, nowhere. All flights are full today, but she offers me to get on the standby list for the 3pm flight. Ok first, if the 8am flight is cancelled due to weather, why does she think the 3pm won't be, and it's so much closer to the storm? Argh. So obviously the flight isn't cancelled due to weather. Then I say well OK, now I'm stranded in Newark, I need you to get me on a flight back to Burlington. She goes "no, we don't do that". I said "Well, you cancelled the flight while I was in the air, this morning the flight was still OK, when I got on the plane in burlington the flight was still OK, I could NOT have known this was going to happen, you need to get me back to my car in Burlington!". Again, the answer was no, we don't do that. They were going to leave me stranded in NYC with a storm on the way, nice right? So then I said well, can I purchase a ticket to Burlington? (I'm desperate). They say there's 2 tickets left, 600$ each. Keep in mind this is a 1 hour flight. 600$ is more than I paid for my complete round trip ticket to San Diego. Anyways they finally relented and got my husband and I on the LAST two spots on a plane leaving for Burlington, and they didn't charge us. So I'm back home. But I've been travelling for the past 10 hours and I have nothing to show for it. And I'm so heartbroken over it, I was so scared going into this but I kept telling myself it would be OK, I starved for 3 days on the yogurt for nothing. I feel like a giant baby because I just can't stop crying about it. Now I don't know when I'll be able to rebook, my mother is only available until mid November to watch my kids, which only gives me a 2 week window... and if it doesn't happen then, I'll have to wait until April. To me that's like... giving up 6 months of my life. It sucks.