swimbikerun

You are wonderful in His eyes my sister!

My family is from NC since the 1790 census. I'm the first generation of Virginia born crew. I also have a strong faith to get me thru all I've had to deal with. I'm delighted to see a fellow sister on here.

Think about it: if the biggest things you have to worry about is Iron, Vit D, issues, those can be solved by taking some sort of supplement or watching the diet. Iron pills and infusions are here. Think about obesity: cancer rates higher, hypertension, diabetes (and all of its deals). Which one do you want to either live with or die by? Check out those of us with complications. I'm not the only one who would say get the surgery. I do want to make a plug that a recent study (and I need to find it) is that by year 2 people stop taking Vitamins but another study also said you get enough food in at year 2. Wouldn't it be better just to have your testing done by a PCP and adjust your food/supplements accordingly? Face it: with every surgery there can be issues. These are now safer than hip replacement, but you need to do your own homework. Research. Ask some major tough questions of the doctors. Most of all, I had an eye doc who gave us his worst case: lawsuit, only one he had. I read it and researched it at the court house. Wasn't docs fault. I had some issues and the care was EXEMPLARY. Any problems, they fix them. I dont ask for free care either.

PPI = Proton Pump Inhibitor. One of the meds for reflux.

As someone who took Flintstones and never had Vitamin K that registered it was so low when tested, THANK YOU for spreading the word on Flintstones.

Yes and no. Regret surgery no. Regret the surgeons' actions - or some of them - absolutely. I am off all prazole drugs. Not fun. We're seeing the others try to work.

Mark Fontana, used a 42 bougie. So not a whole lot compared to others. I've seen 30 to 40, 40 being avg if memory serves. Yes, yes and yes.

That is nuts. Someone wants to get healthy and doctors look at them wrong. I'm sorry, but that is outrageous. What do they care? They'll miss out on $$$ because you are healthier and don't put $$ in their pockets any longer? I've seen support groups that aren't support except for a certain line of thought. It seems bariatric surgery must only be for a few, by the way some doctors act.

Fear and hatred is right. I think it is that and the fact of discrimination on looks. How many passes are given to those who physically look good compared to those who don't, no matter how good they are? Remember Marla Hooch in A League of Their Own? How good she was, yet because she wasn't Miss Georgia, she was not considered until the other women stood up against the bigotry.

Do you think the negative vibes stem from jealousy or derision? I want to know why WLS should have a stigma with it? Why not diabetics or people with heart trouble who are extremely overweight, no one denigrates them for taking insulin or high blood pressure pills do they? Does any one carp on depressed or bipolar people for taking medications or doing things to get healthy? Or is it they don't want to admit that the studies are true in that diet and exercise don't work after needing to lose 5-15 pounds? if they think that everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, how many examples can they point out in THEIR life that they did it all by themselves?

You are most welcome. I'm very shocked and outraged that some of the Facebook groups, when confronted with how aftercare is, how some doctors are, are trying to put down the patient(s) rather than asking how they would feel in that position? Thank you to Alex Brecher for letting us be honest about the good and bad so we can all have knowledge that helps us to make the best experience and outcome for each patient as possible!

Depends on the doctor. Here is what I've seen: some will and some will have you do extra testing with the PCP, some will do it themselves. It just all depends. There is no rhyme or reason.

Where you are getting that blueberry flavored liquid calcium?

Beni, I was tagged because I've had neurologic issues and those can all come from bariatric surgery. Any neurologist can figure it out. Mine eliminated a lot of things and then had that verified that she had checked everything. Good Nutritional Control May Prevent Polyneuropathy after Bariatric Surgery Pariwat Thaisetthawatkul, M.D.1, Maria L. Collazo-Clavell, M.D.2, Michael G. Sarr, M.D.3, Jane E. Norell, B.S.4, and P. James B. Dyck, M.D.4 OBES SURG (2014) 24:1800–1807 DOI 10.1007/s11695-014-1376-x Neurological Complications of Bariatric Surgery Anne Landais Neurological Complications of Bariatric Surgery Anne Landais Neurology 2004 Oct 26;63(8):1462-70. A controlled study of peripheral neuropathy after bariatric surgery. Thaisetthawatkul, P et all Nutritional Neuropathy Jasvinder Chawla, Medscape Reference Journal of Family Community Medicine 2011 Sep-Dec; 18(3): 162-164 doi: 10.4103/2230-8229.90020 Peripheral polyneuropathy after bariatric surgery for morbid obesity I-Ching Lin and Ying-Li Lin Neurological Review The Neurological Complications of Bariatric Surgery Joseph R. Berger, MD Archives of Neurology vol 61 August 2004 Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Obesity Volume 2012, Article ID 608534, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/608534 Review Article The Neurological Complications of Nutritional Deficiency following Bariatric Surgery Danielle A. Becker,1 Laura J. Balcer,1, 2, 3 and Steven L. Galetta1, 2 for starters Give me a shout or flag me again if I can help. I'm reading a book that just barely hit the press on Nutrition and bariatric surgery. It hasn't included a lot on specific nutrition and I'm following that up.

There are a good number of positive things that happen, but the problem is that we usually don't hear about the bad things going on. Doctors try to cover these things up, hospital admins, etc. I posted FOIA'ed police reports and people got bent out of shape and deleted it. One my groups, the doctors' patients are in charge of the group. Do you think they deleted something that showed their doctor called the cops on someone "not doing anything wrong" by the police? So when it comes to complications who truly knows? I've also had people who were scared to death to say anything because those doctors would blacklist and dump care completely. Surgeon don't always know. I should have had my gastroparesis get better after the surgery. It didn't.

Whoo hooo go Jen. We also have a list of vegetarian Protein sources. Vega is great, Garden of Life is, I've tried Sun Warrior. There are pea Proteins, etc. too. Can you get some of those and show them to the doctor and ask why they would have a problem with it if you got the 60 grams from your food and those? Beans are great too.

OUCH!

Wow ... another reason not to tell people things. Maybe the brother could have made up his mind and just left you congrats or not called at all?

Isn't 0X the same as a size 16?

Thank you for explaining this. This was very helpful in terms of specifics so people can pass this on others.

There are a lot of ignorant people in health care. The only way to change that is to educate yourself and then give them the piece of your mind and your resources. Not all are like this, but some.

YOU GO Ms skinniness!!!! Way to go!

Congratulations Ageekygal! It was when I started researching that things really made a difference for me and I could tell who knew and did what. I saw my surgeon for what he was. You do have to be your own advocate. If you have a surgeon like mine, who isn't willing to be in with you for the long haul and be able to handle all sorts of stuff, really think about whether or not that mindset is going to help you. I'm all about telling people find out beforehand. You don't want to get what I got.

The last thing people need is garbage. jessiquoi has that right. I know that when my surgeon wasn't supportive, and everyone else was, it sort of changed the game.

Up the calories a bit and stop exercising as hard or long.