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Respond to her question with outrageous lies. Exaggerate huge amounts of food you ate when you got home..... You are taking laxatives.... You want to lose enough weight to shop in the children's department.... I'm training for MMA and this is the diet they have me on. If you give her crazy stupid answers maybe she'll stop asking because she won't get a straight answer anyways.
I was very careful about who I told about my surgery, (I thought) but unfortunately one person blabbed to her mother-in-law. I didn't even know she knew when she came up to me last weekend and asked why would I go to Mexico for surgery. I looked right at her and said "well that's where I always went for my abortions, so why not?". Boy, did she ever shut up. Haven't heard from her since

So I did a little experiment today.... I am a vet tech and have access to X-ray equipment and barium . I wanted to get a look at my full stomach preop to be able to compare the size to my sleeve. So I did a mini upper GI of myself and found out why I still feel hungry even right after having a Protein Shake. I drank about 2 oz of barium and took 3 X-rays. In the course of just 5 minutes, the barium was well advanced into my small intestines, and in less than 10 minutes, there was nothing left in my stomach. So besides explaining why I'm always hungry, this definitely explains the lack of restriction so many people complain about post op, until they get to full solids. liquids just don't stay in the stomach very long (under conditions of normal GI transit times)

I'm with McButterpants... I was trying to get in all my favorites for the couple weeks before starting my preop. I finally got sick of all the "last this, last that" and finally gave it up. Started my preop 2 days early just to de-stress from eating. I was also afraid I couldn't lose what I was supposed to, but turns out that's not an issue (down 11 pounds in 10 days, so I have another week to lose just 1 pound). Just use the next few weeks to really get mentally prepared.

Respond to her question with outrageous lies. Exaggerate huge amounts of food you ate when you got home..... You are taking laxatives.... You want to lose enough weight to shop in the children's department.... I'm training for MMA and this is the diet they have me on. If you give her crazy stupid answers maybe she'll stop asking because she won't get a straight answer anyways.
I was very careful about who I told about my surgery, (I thought) but unfortunately one person blabbed to her mother-in-law. I didn't even know she knew when she came up to me last weekend and asked why would I go to Mexico for surgery. I looked right at her and said "well that's where I always went for my abortions, so why not?". Boy, did she ever shut up. Haven't heard from her since

RJ, I'm so sorry you have to endure yet another painful event. Have you asked your doc about being able to take tramadol? It's not as addicting as narcotics and it works really well for certain pain (not headaches) More effective for me than Vicodin when I had my neck surgery and more effective for my friend who broke a collar bone and 2 ribs.
If still no pain Meds allowed, have you checked into acupuncture? It may relief some pain and even help with healing and address other stressor issues. (But you have no stress, right? )

The Cheat - I swore I would only weigh myself once/week so I wouldn't get obsessed with the numbers. But when getting dressed this morning, I had to tighten my belt an extra notch. Made me curious, So I gave in to the scale....down 11 pounds in 10 days on my preop diet! I'm still a week away from surgery and I was told to lose 12 pounds so I guess I'm good to go!
The Regret - I started my preop diet 2 days early "just in case"

I'm 8 days in and starving every day. But I just look at it as all my fat cells screaming "no not me!". I'm supposed to lose 12 pounds preop and already down 9 so yeah, the hunger hurts so good

So I did a little experiment today.... I am a vet tech and have access to X-ray equipment and barium . I wanted to get a look at my full stomach preop to be able to compare the size to my sleeve. So I did a mini upper GI of myself and found out why I still feel hungry even right after having a Protein Shake. I drank about 2 oz of barium and took 3 X-rays. In the course of just 5 minutes, the barium was well advanced into my small intestines, and in less than 10 minutes, there was nothing left in my stomach. So besides explaining why I'm always hungry, this definitely explains the lack of restriction so many people complain about post op, until they get to full solids. liquids just don't stay in the stomach very long (under conditions of normal GI transit times)

Respond to her question with outrageous lies. Exaggerate huge amounts of food you ate when you got home..... You are taking laxatives.... You want to lose enough weight to shop in the children's department.... I'm training for MMA and this is the diet they have me on. If you give her crazy stupid answers maybe she'll stop asking because she won't get a straight answer anyways.
I was very careful about who I told about my surgery, (I thought) but unfortunately one person blabbed to her mother-in-law. I didn't even know she knew when she came up to me last weekend and asked why would I go to Mexico for surgery. I looked right at her and said "well that's where I always went for my abortions, so why not?". Boy, did she ever shut up. Haven't heard from her since

So I did a little experiment today.... I am a vet tech and have access to X-ray equipment and barium . I wanted to get a look at my full stomach preop to be able to compare the size to my sleeve. So I did a mini upper GI of myself and found out why I still feel hungry even right after having a Protein Shake. I drank about 2 oz of barium and took 3 X-rays. In the course of just 5 minutes, the barium was well advanced into my small intestines, and in less than 10 minutes, there was nothing left in my stomach. So besides explaining why I'm always hungry, this definitely explains the lack of restriction so many people complain about post op, until they get to full solids. liquids just don't stay in the stomach very long (under conditions of normal GI transit times)

Respond to her question with outrageous lies. Exaggerate huge amounts of food you ate when you got home..... You are taking laxatives.... You want to lose enough weight to shop in the children's department.... I'm training for MMA and this is the diet they have me on. If you give her crazy stupid answers maybe she'll stop asking because she won't get a straight answer anyways.
I was very careful about who I told about my surgery, (I thought) but unfortunately one person blabbed to her mother-in-law. I didn't even know she knew when she came up to me last weekend and asked why would I go to Mexico for surgery. I looked right at her and said "well that's where I always went for my abortions, so why not?". Boy, did she ever shut up. Haven't heard from her since

It's definitely not as yummy as the real thing (for example, PB2 is closer to real Peanut Butter than this is to real cheese) It's basically a "watered down" low fat cheese sauce (not rich and creamy) but after all those vanilla, chocolate, and other sweet Protein Drinks it's heaven.

Respond to her question with outrageous lies. Exaggerate huge amounts of food you ate when you got home..... You are taking laxatives.... You want to lose enough weight to shop in the children's department.... I'm training for MMA and this is the diet they have me on. If you give her crazy stupid answers maybe she'll stop asking because she won't get a straight answer anyways.
I was very careful about who I told about my surgery, (I thought) but unfortunately one person blabbed to her mother-in-law. I didn't even know she knew when she came up to me last weekend and asked why would I go to Mexico for surgery. I looked right at her and said "well that's where I always went for my abortions, so why not?". Boy, did she ever shut up. Haven't heard from her since

So I did a little experiment today.... I am a vet tech and have access to X-ray equipment and barium . I wanted to get a look at my full stomach preop to be able to compare the size to my sleeve. So I did a mini upper GI of myself and found out why I still feel hungry even right after having a Protein Shake. I drank about 2 oz of barium and took 3 X-rays. In the course of just 5 minutes, the barium was well advanced into my small intestines, and in less than 10 minutes, there was nothing left in my stomach. So besides explaining why I'm always hungry, this definitely explains the lack of restriction so many people complain about post op, until they get to full solids. liquids just don't stay in the stomach very long (under conditions of normal GI transit times)

I'm with McButterpants... I was trying to get in all my favorites for the couple weeks before starting my preop. I finally got sick of all the "last this, last that" and finally gave it up. Started my preop 2 days early just to de-stress from eating. I was also afraid I couldn't lose what I was supposed to, but turns out that's not an issue (down 11 pounds in 10 days, so I have another week to lose just 1 pound). Just use the next few weeks to really get mentally prepared.

The Cheat - I swore I would only weigh myself once/week so I wouldn't get obsessed with the numbers. But when getting dressed this morning, I had to tighten my belt an extra notch. Made me curious, So I gave in to the scale....down 11 pounds in 10 days on my preop diet! I'm still a week away from surgery and I was told to lose 12 pounds so I guess I'm good to go!
The Regret - I started my preop diet 2 days early "just in case"

Hello, I am coming up on two and half years post-op. As far as the whole gherlin question though, I would highly advise not putting much stock in that being your cure to obesity and cravings. In my reading here and other research, people's issues with having a poor relationship with food and their ability to abuse food has little to do with gherlin.
Now, let me also say that I do feel my food craving is far reduced post surgery compared to pre, but I also know there are other contributing factors here. I have done a lot of self reflection as to why I abuse food and try to take a more conscience approach to what I put in my mouth.
Bottom line is having reduced gherlin is not going to prevent you from snacking or craving food. I was doing this just last night. I returned from a holiday party where I ate shrimp and chicken skewers with a little pad thai. It was delicious and I was full. But, when I got home, I walked over to the pantry and grabbed a box of Cheese-Its.
I stopped.
Why did I grab those? Was I hungry? No ... I was actually quite full. But yet, I stood there with a box of Cheese-Its. I put them back resolving to the fact that I do things just out of habit without even thinking. This is something that I just normally do when I walk in the door. I usually grab a quick snack when I get home because several hours have passed by and dinner won't be for another hour or so. I am fine with grabbing that snack, but I repeated that behavior when I wasn't even hungry.
That is just one of my problems. I don't necessarily eat when I am hungry. I eat because I repeat behaviors, bad or good. Lack of gherlin isn't going to help me here. What I need to do is be aware of what I am feeling when I do eat.

I live in sports bras but unfortunately as the sisters have gotten bigger (from weight gain) a lot of sports bras don't provide enough support. I guess the manufacturers don't expect "big girls" to be playing sports. Anyways, the one good thing is that any one sports bra usually functions through a range of sizes so as my boobs shrink after surgery (hopefully) I won't have to buy new bras for each size. Once I'm stabilized I'm really hoping to fit into something pretty instead of functional!

"Similarly I have to note when I took my Calcium supplement so I'll know when I can take my Iron - and vice versa. "
JeanZ... I've had the same problem trying to figure out when to take my Iron so it wasn't with my multi or with my calcium or with a meal. Well, rarely does a night go by that I don't have to get up and pee, so I keep my Celebrate chewable iron +Vitamin C next to my bed and nibble it down in the middle of the night when I'm up anyways.

I've been researching my Surgeon options and am probably going to go with Dr. Ortiz. I knew the Newsweek thing was an advertisement and I also know the Center of Excellence thing is a joke. I'm in the veterinary field and its the same thing as someone only going with an AAHA accredited vet hospital.... Piles of paperwork, notebooks full of formal protocols, and doing everything "right" on the day of your official accreditation visit does not make you or your staff "the best". But like barbbdoll, my research kept coming back to him. As for his forum, I would be more disturbed if his moderators did remove Lindsay's posts. I feel That would be biased censorship on their part.
For the Ortiz non-fans out there, I would love to hear any personal complaints and complications you've had. I'm pretty leary of general bashing statements and statistics with no proof from non-patients.

The OP was deleted (at least on my end, there's nothing there but a period), so I think it was left up to interpretation based on the title.

I just started reading the book, "Emotional First Aid Kit - A Practical Guide to Life after Bariatric Surgery" by Cynthia Alexander. I'm only on chapter 3, but so far has been a pretty good read to help me wrap my head around what I'm getting myself into. She stresses very hard that the surgery is actually the easy part. We have to come to grips with the emotional and social aspects of our eating habits and make changes for a healthier lifestyle. The surgery should be the last step in the entire process...not the first. The mental part is much harder than the physical part.
Since I am self-pay, I've missed out on the psych eval and therapy sessions a lot of insurance companies require. This book is providing a lot of insight into the mental and emotional struggles that I will be going through and I hope this will help with my ability to succeed. So if you are looking to "cheat" (gain an advantage to success), might I suggest getting this book.

I just started reading the book, "Emotional First Aid Kit - A Practical Guide to Life after Bariatric Surgery" by Cynthia Alexander. I'm only on chapter 3, but so far has been a pretty good read to help me wrap my head around what I'm getting myself into. She stresses very hard that the surgery is actually the easy part. We have to come to grips with the emotional and social aspects of our eating habits and make changes for a healthier lifestyle. The surgery should be the last step in the entire process...not the first. The mental part is much harder than the physical part.
Since I am self-pay, I've missed out on the psych eval and therapy sessions a lot of insurance companies require. This book is providing a lot of insight into the mental and emotional struggles that I will be going through and I hope this will help with my ability to succeed. So if you are looking to "cheat" (gain an advantage to success), might I suggest getting this book.

Hola!!!
Just checking in with everyone and reporting that I was successfully sleeved on Wednesday Dec 4th I'm feeling good and just finished my first "drinkable yogurt" with a lot of sounds from my stomach, but no complaints.
b2b, glad you were able to determine that it's nothing serious. I wondered if maybe it was something liver related (liver problems can make you itchy everywhere). Look forward to hearing what the OCC says.

Do you know what anti nausea they sent home? Here are the meds Carolyn told me I'd get and no anti nausea on the list....
Supradol (NSAID) 4 days
Inhibitron (Omeprazole) PPI 2 months
Pemix (cinitapride) anti ulcer 7 days
Denvar (Cefixime) antibiotic 5 days
(I thought the NSAID was strange, and definitely on my list of things to ask about pre-op)