Macy6

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/forum/48-gastric-sleeve-surgery-vsg-complications-support-group/ Here is the complications forum. It gives you a good perspective of all things bad and no good. It is a real risk, but it is so important to be well educated and informed. As far as check ups, I would guess it is dependent on your surgeon, and what they do. My surgeon has regular check ups. I know for sure 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 2 months. I am fairly certain there is a 4 month and 6 month too, at least with the nutritionist. This forum can be an incredible tool to learn about what can be an incredible tool in your weight loss journey. Some journeys are short, others long. I will have been on an 8 month journey when I have my surgery on the 27th. I have read many books, participated in many forums and posts. I have gone to monthly support groups and kept in regular contact with my primary physician and patient navigator. With all the hours I have put into it, I know that I am only in the first chapter of knowing everything there is to know about the sleeve.

Great question, I am scheduled for the 27th and should go back sometime after the 1st of October. So around 4-5 weeks, but I have weekly labs for school starting 9 days post op. I already warned I might be worthless at times.

I think I am putting my scale away for the first month lol. I think I am putting my scale away for the first month lol. It seems like the first couple weeks is bloat from surgery than you have the 3rd week "plateau" or whatever you want to call it. If I don't weigh until 1 month out I will never know right? Doubt I could make it that long.

I have kind of wondered this too. I have told people close to me, and plan on letting others who know me well post surgery. I will be going into a pretty intensive clinical rotation about 5 weeks post surgery and it will last for 10 weeks. I will be working with the same nurse through the whole clinical rotation. All but the last 2-3 weeks of it I will be on a "fork soft diet" so I kind of wonder what kind of questions or strange looks I might get. However knowing me, I will probably just tell them.

My surgeon sets different goals for different patients. I know one person who needed to loose around 50# while I had a 5# loss requirement. I personally believe there are a number of reasons, I think my surgeon wants us as close to or less than 50 BMI (mainly because my loss put me at 49 BMI) I also think that depending on the patient and the "vibe" the surgeon gets from the patient, maybe based on age or health history, that it is also to test the patient to see how committed they are. The person I know who had to loose 50# is pretty young and has a questionable past medical history and comes off pretty immature while I walked in very educated and had pages of questions and I have a pretty clean medical history. I have theories of course :-)

My NUT recommended adding 3 TBSP of powdered milk to protein shakes, broths, soups etc. 90 calories and 9g of protein.

I have to be back at school and in a 4 hour simulation lab 9 days in. I plan on sitting as often as necessary.

I am pre op, just looking at my sample menu for weeks 2-10 my sample menu goes 8am: 1/4C scrambled egg + Protein powder, 1/4C canned fruit 11am: 2oz tuna, 1/4 C cooked carrots 2pm: 1/4C SF/LF yogurt 5pm: 2oz baked fish, 1/4C green Beans 8pm: 1C Protein shake, sipped for 1 hour The nutritional recommendations are Calories: 900 Protein: 60-80gm Total Meal volumes: Never to go over 1/2C or 4oz

I was so there just a few weeks ago. I obsessively checked my email and phone. It took 2 weeks to get my stuff submitted and 2 weeks for approval. I never thought it would come, but it did, and Aug 27th is around the corner.

Good Luck! Your post gave me a good laugh!

Funny, One search of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery produced this article. http://asmbs.org/201...hed-procedures/ Third sentence in.... "is as safe or safer than laparoscopic gastric bypass or gastric banding" Don't get me wrong, I am an advocate for what one feels will work for them. I know someone who has been quite successful with little to no complications with the gastric band, I know a few people who are the same with gastric bypass. My mother had a very early version of gastric banding and it nearly killed her when it closed up and they had to flight for life her 250 miles away to a specialist because our town, at the time, didn't have surgeons who dealt with that kind of issue. That was probably 10 years ago, and around 12 years post op from the original surgery, but I am fairly certain she would have adamantly been opposed to the idea of me getting lap band because of her experience. On the other hand I know someone who is quite large who had the sleeve done in January as a first step in the DS. He had a tremendous amont of complications, but he was also around 500-600#. He had a type of resistant bacterial infection that nearly killed him, and 7 months later is still in the process of wound healing. His surgeons have already said he is going to have to get the sleeve to work, because if they risk another surgery it could kill him. He has lost nearly 200# and as far as the sleeve goes is doing well.

^^^ I agree. I had a ton of requirements. 6mo PCP supervised diet. Psych evals, upper GI, sleep study, exercise physiologist, EKG, labs etc... Every surgeon and Insurance is different. My surgeon wanted EKG upper GI due to history of GERD and PVCs. My surgeon requires the exercise physiologist and support groups and even to read a book. I heard that there was a girl who went in for her pre op surgical visit and they realized she hadn't read the book and they canceled the surgery. She said she didn't know, but knowing what I know I have a hard time believing she didn't know. I knew about the book during my informational seminar and had read it within the week. Better to double, triple check than regret it later.

This is slightly dated, but I too was urgently waiting my approval due to a limited surgery schedule. I explained that I would have to wait until December should I not get the dates I was shooting for and the surgeons office "penciled" me in. I received my approval and they set the date for sure. I ended up with a date 2 weeks later than I really wanted, Silly surgeon took a 3 week vacation. I'm his first when he gets home.

I have a "goal" number but I have never fully been set on it. My surgeon set two goals for me. The top of my BMI and their expected goal, which is 70% of my excess weight, however going into this I have always said if I hit 170 and I am healthy and active and feeling good I am not going to beat myself up. However I am not going to be ok hitting 170 if I'm sitting on the couch at home not even trying. I want to be comfortable in my own skin, where that lands on the scale is to be seen. My surgeons goal is high enough that I am not worried about making their goal.

I have seen a huge variety in time frames... 15-30 min before 30-90min after. The biggest thing to remember is the longer that food hangs out and the more your body works to digest it, without the added water, the longer you will feel full and the less food you will eat.

Its a journey, but worth it.... I am 36 days and ...... hours until my surgery. I can't even tell you how quickly the time has gone, from my first encounter at an informational meeting in January!

I received my call of approval on the 16th, I received the actual letter today and was super excited and took a picture of the letter and sent it to my friend. First it irritated me that I have been talking about this since January, I told her the whole process of me choosing sleeve over bypass, she acted confused and said "is this different than bypass?" uhhhh yes. So I explain the process, I send pictures and tell her the reasons, again, why I chose the surgery. Anyway she comes back with "I just read about it online, it says you have to be able to count calories, do you think you will be able to count calories after if you couldn't do it before?" I than tell my sister in law about what happened and she says "Boy that's rude, I would be lying if I didn't say I have wondered the same thing but would have never come right out and said it" sighhhhh guess I just have to prove them all wrong.

Trust me.... be honest. Depending on what they do, in my case I took a 265 question test and a 95 question test. There were a lot of repeat questions and I am fairly certain they would have known if I was contradicting myself, my psychiatrist even questioned me about some of my fill in the blank stuff. I worried, I have a history of major depression, I have a history of an anxiety disorder and I am currently being treated for depression. He had absolutely no issues with me, he said that he has found that those suffering from depression tend to do better after surgery. Like cindymg said.... it really is about your head being in the right frame of mind, and if it isn't, you probably aren't ready right now anyway.

Have you tried thinning and straining cream soups to give you something different?

I am 12 days after you... Everyday I think... X days.... (39 today) than I go.... 29 days until pre op diet.... lol. So close and yet soooo far away.

I am not sure if I needed one. I never got one, so unless my surgeons office asked her for one I am assuming no. I was approved on the 16th.

I look forward to the next post!

I had to loose 5.... which seems so insignificant, but it wasn't and I waited until the last week before my final weigh in to do anything about it. I went very strict low carb and lost 7.9 in a week, I have continued on and lost around 15 or so.... I have maintained, but not been as strict.. I had no motivation, until that last week, because I knew I had to do it, or my paperwork wasn't being submitted! You can and will do it!!!

If you are flying and sitting for long periods of time (post surgery) do the compression stockings. High risk for DVTs....

I was open about my previous battle with major depression, my current battle with depression and anxiety and was approved. He was very thorough, asked lots of questions. I think it helped that I seek help when I struggle.