lizv123

I actually did it with protein. Chicken breast to be exact after all my complications I'm not sure I'd even want to be resleeved, especially by my surgeon. His record was good, and I apparently am the only patient he's had issues with as far as attitude. I was his first sleeve leak and I'm sure that damage his typical surgeon ego. I truly feel he holds it against me as he refuses to take ANY blame for my complications. But that's a whoooooole different discussion

No I'm not, what would the bring to the picture exactly? As familiar I am with the mass of different doctors, endocrinology is a field I'm not familiar with.

My arthritis and fibromyalgia keeps me from weightlifting and it breaks my heart! I loved doing that before surgery but the complications an meds I was on during my leak ordeal pushed my fibro up to a whole new level. On the days I can, I do whatever exercise possible but most days getting out of bed and staying awake is a chore. :/

I've been following the diet exactly with no results! I never had problems dieting and losing weight, I would just always gain it back so I'm thinking with a different diet or something, and the help of the sleeve I could diet and not gain it back as easily or as quickly. If that makes sense

60? I'm lucky to maintain a 70 normal lol after 2-3 hours after eating I'm at 30ish give or take. I would LOVE a revision to DS but my surgeon refuses because my BMI isn't high enough and he has blatantly blamed me for my lack of weight loss. It's my fault I have fibromyalgia and my fault I have to eat small quantities often and that has my sleeve "stretch" (which in his seminar he says is impossible. I'm so tempted to go to his next seminar and give my horror story of my month long stay at the hospital, a year of complications, and his horrible bedside manner.) I really don't know much of 5:2. At this point I'm willing to try anything I can.

The abscess from leak ended up testing GRAM+ (MRSA) so now I'm a colonizer/carrier. I've had repeated bouts with MRSA sores in my nose, throat and mouth. I also have some permanent lung damage in the mid section of my left lung meaning I'm prone to lung infections and have had more since surgery than I have my whole life. Before surgery I had a lung test and due to genetics, the bottom quadrants of both lungs were barely functioning but it had never caused problems. Now any lung problem has to be treated promptly and checked for MRSA. Also, for my blood sugar I can make it a maximum of 3.5 hours before my sugar bottoms and I have to eat something. My GP and dietician say to eat a small dose of quick carbs, followed by Protein and that's what I do if I bottom. But it's VERY hard to maintain on a protein rich diet. I try though!

It's been a year, I've followed my diet to a T. In that year (and 2 months) I've been diagnosed as hypoglycemic, had a huge jump in fibro pain, dealing with permanent leak complications, osteiarthritis has gotten worse, had my surgeon treat me like sh!t, looking at potential surgery for my now almost exposed tailbone, and only lost 60-65lbs (haven't been on a scale in awhile.) a sleeve test showed my sleeve can hold: wait for it- 16 ounces! I've measured and weighed everything. The sleeve has been crap for me. Low carb and high Protein has obviously done all it can and even my dietician is at a loss. So- what do you do when the sleeve stops working? It's time for other diet options. Sensa, maybe? Guide me. Advise me. Help me. I am NOT satisfied, I'm still "obese" and very depressed to have gone through so much with such minimal results. Heeeeelp!

I saw you in WalMart on Christmas Eve eve! I was in the video section and kept thinking "I know that face" then when you started to walk away I grabbed my fiancé's arm and said "OH MY GOD IT'S HIM!! Look at him! He's half gone!" I was going to catch up with you and say hi but you looked like you were on a mission lol you look fabulous!!

I was his first sleeve leak. I think that has a lot to do with it. He flat out told us in the hospital he didn't know what to do. What he didn't tell us was following that statement he consulted with other surgeons. He let us keep thinking for several days that he was clueless. You're in the field, you know how some surgeons are arrogant anyway, or experienced it with various surgeries in my life first hand and the people around me, but this guy takes the cake lol

I do agree with most of this post entirely. He was only kind PRE-op. As soon as he preformed the surgery he turned into a jerk. The entire time I was in the hospital with my leak he made an ass of himself, annoyed by his own mistakes and the fact he had to own up to a leak and tarnish his reputation. As for the narcotic situation, again, I'm well aware of all the comes with taking them. I live in a town where prescription abuse is overwhelming. I know what taking them entails and am doing everything in my power to get away from them and seek alternate treatments like seeing a specialist for trigger point shots. And again, the physician treating my pain is an addiction specialist. She's also handled my mental health for 11 years. I'm fully aware of my circumstances. Thank you though, for your input.

Yes he put me on Prilosec immediately after surgery. He was amazing pre-op. Kind, understanding, very reasonable and answered any and all questions clearly and well mannered. I was thinking of seeing more than one attorney to make sure if they say yes, it's a solid yes. The fact that you can call your city large is a big indication that it's bigger than mine lol. The population if my town is somewhere between 15-20 thousand. Southern Indiana (my area in particular) is veeeeery rural

I am absolutely not an addict and if my doctor had even taken a moment to listen to my explanation of why I am not an addict he would have retracted his statement. I'm glad YOU "decided" you had fibro. However I have been DIAGNOSED by 3 different physicians who had no knowledge of my previous diagnoses because I was in denial about accepting the truth. So you most certainly do not recognize my story. You don't know all the medications, various treatments, and everything else under the sun I tried to AVOID the use narcotic medication. Your pain was withdrawal symptoms but mine absolutely is not. My butrans patch is an opiate agonist so without my pain meds I do not have any withdrawal symptoms. I take my medication when I'm in pain. Not daily and not out of habit. My life is fibromyalgia. Not addiction. I know the difference very well. Not once have taken my meds to get high. The doctor that handles my pain management for now is also an addiction specialist. I do believe she knows more than a Bariatric surgeon and a person who thinks they know me and my story. I haven't lost my life to addiction and being judgmental like you did, not to be mean. Get help. Good luck.

Thank you all for your support. I really wasn't sure about pursuing this but I think I should. Worst case scenario the attorney says there's no case.

Well I have 2 options: 1- be upbeat and take it in stride 2- maniacal rampage followed by imploding. I'm not ready for the second option yet I'm more into ripping off his facial hair and mounting it on my nightstand so I can see it before I sleep

Legal reasons an opposing attorney could subpoena (sp?) me for social media passwords, etc. In fact I have to go through and delete EVERYTHING with his name. Anyone interested, however, can email me : lizv123@gmail.com and I can share more information. But I can say I'm located in southern Indiana to help narrow it down

I'm seriously contemplating buying the sugar free gummy bears for this purpose! Tastier than pills and Epsom salts

He does the sleeve. His Bariatric team is wonderful and his skills are great with the DaVinci robot. However he is not a nice person. Very judgmental post op and downright rude. He is the reason I had a leak. He has had me in tears in his office. Just yesterday I had my one year check up and he made my cry. Accused me of using my fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis as an excuse to not lose weight and even went as far as to say "your fibro is bad because you're still fat, we've had no other patients complain." If you'd like further info feel free to message me.

I'm in Southern Indiana at had my surgery done at Schneck medical center. Now let me clarify, I will choose to go to Schneck Medical over anywhere locally. Aside from him, they are FANTASTIC! I've never had such great care from nurses and office staff. HE is the rotten apple in the bunch. Even the nurses when I was in for my month stay said he treats them poorly most days. I even love his nurse practitioner. It's just unfortunate that he's the only surgeon in their Bariatric program.

Sugar free stuff will have a laxative effect if taken in more than one serving size. Learned that the hard way in high school with cough drops :/

Just remember from here for awhile you and your toilet will form a VERY close relationship. Liquid in, liquid out. And NEVER trust a fart.

I'd like to add: I went to a Bariatric "center or excellence" or whatever the official title is. You can't know what's going to happen until it happens. Just follow your doctor's orders to a T and hope for the best also, take care NOT to over do it with your daughter. The minor financial strain of hubs taking a few extra days off is nothing compared to popping a suture from lifting your baby and going through another surgery for repair and the long hospital stay. Not to forget the financial strain of the second stay hospital bills :s

I was in the hospital one week after surgery for an ER visit due to chest pain. They released me. I didn't get any better and about one week later I was in the ER and admitted for a month due to a leak that wasn't my fault but surgeon's.

I'm a year out. They still can't be trusted.

That's it. After my year appointment I left my surgeons office in tears. Hell I was crying while talking to the S.O,B. It's time for me to write everything down and see an attorney to see if I have a case. First he sent me out of the hospital despite me begging to stay another day because I couldn't keep down the 4 oz of a fluid an hour that he "demands of all his patients" and I was constantly, I mean nonstop heaving. He also did no leak test which I was ok with because his theory made sense: that soon after surgery the tissue is too inflamed to see if there is a hole or not. Second, one week later I went to their ER with moderate chest pain. I told them I was a patient of his one week out from surgery, they called him with the costocondritis diagnosis and he ok'd it without any scans or tests and they sent me home with some tramadol. Third, about one week after that the chest pain had gotten worse, I was miserable, and was starting to vomit again because he wouldn't refill my zofran. That's when they found the "abscess" in my abdomen and scheduled me for emergency exploratory surgery the following morning. They found nothing but an abscess then, they suctioned it out and put in a JP drain. After they went inside they found MRSA and I am now a carrier. There were several small incidents during my month in the hospital that really need to be written down but it's already on another thread here and I really don't feel like typing it all right now. () After several several tests and about a full week later they finally diagnosed me with a leak and I was on TPN strict NPO for the month to let it heal. The only other option was a stent. He would do nothing else. During my entire month stay I was on a pain pump receiving 1 mg of morphine every six minutes. He unplugged me and sent me home cold turkey with a prescription for antibiotics and 2 days worth of tylox. During my DTs I almost ended up returning to the ER but I refused to go back. After that I developed a mass at my drain site that was warm to the touch and very painful, I called him on the phone (as instructed by his nurses) and while talking to him my drain site popped open and began self draining the MRSA filled fluid that was building up. Almost immediately the pressure was gone and he said, "well there we go. Anything else? No? Good. I guess if it becomes too much for you to control with home bandaging you could come in to the ER goodbye" *click* Fourth- my follow up appointment, I didn't see him, I saw his nurse practitioner. Part of me was relieved because at least she's nice but wouldn't you think a surgeon should see his first sleeve leak patient just a couple weeks out of surgery? Fifth strike- he didn't show up at my 6 month check up either. Yesterday was strike six. My year check up. His attitude again was unbearable. He crossed the line beyond fixing. He said the following: "the reason your fibro is bad is because you're still fat." "Your colon is going to stop functioning if you keep taking these narcotics" "your list of medications is ridiculous I think you have an addiction problem and I recommend you seek treatment and get a different doctor" "you're LYING about your pain as an excuse to not lose weight" I have gone from moderate pain to severe post op. I've had to up my meds (including antidepressants) and have been fighting with my doctors the entire way because they want me to sign up for disability and I'm only 26 and refuse to give up yet. I also have severe osteoarthritis in my hips and plans to start my series of trigger point shots so I can cut back the amount of meds I take. But that doesn't matter. He still said what he said. I'm done. My surgeon is a scumbag.

Good! Glad you got checked out