James Marusek

I don't know if you will ever be able to change their minds. Even after the surgery when you achieve significant weight reduction, they may still be very negative towards WLS. You might try and understand their negativity. My mom was the only family member who was negative. But I understood why. She depended upon me for her care. She was in her 80's and I was the only family member to provide her the lion's share of her care. She did not want any hiccups in that support.

Walking 30 minutes per day is very important in making the recovery process speed up. I had an exercise regiment 6 months pre-op that was focused on hill walking. After the operation I refused all pain medicines (because I didn't need any, I felt no pain.) I was up and walking almost immediately after surgery and by the time I left the hospital 2 days later I had walked 100 lapses. I walked every 2 hours when I was in the hospital. On the second night, the nurses came in and said, you were sleeping so sound that we decided to not wake you and skip the exercise. When I arrived home I continued the hill walking exercise routine for 6 months. I had a really really good recovery.

I found a small metal spoon in the store and bought it. I eat a lot of soft foods such as Soups and chili and I use this spoon.

One of the reasons why I had RNY gastric bypass surgery was because I had Type II Diabetes. I am 28 months post-op. My diabetes went into remission the day I left the hospital 2 days after surgery and has remained in remission ever since. A recent study implies that controlling blood-sugar levels may help prevent dementia offering hope to patients with diabetes that keeping glucose levels in check might reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of cognitive impairments. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/09/16/controlling-blood-sugar-may-help-prevent-dementia-study-finds/ So there may be another side benefit that I never thought of.

Generally most insurance plans have a plan book that spells out in detail what expenses they cover and which ones they don't. What does your insurance plan book say about bariatric surgery? Today many of these plan books are available on-line. If your plan book describes the conditions for coverage of this surgery, have you met those conditions. If you have then I would still butt heads with the insurance company and find out why they are refusing to cover these expenses.

I didn't experience much pain and I never took pain medicine after surgery. But I have a high pain tolerance.

A new artificial sweetener is about to hit the market called Dolcia Prima. "Dolce" means sweet in Italian; and Prima means "first." The chemical name of this sweetener is allulose (also D-Psicose), and it’s totally natural, albeit rare. Small amounts of it may be found in figs and raisins for example. Allulose is 70% as sweet as table sugar, but contains just a 10% of the calories of processed sugar. Allulose has a taste profile that closely matches sugar, with an almost identical perception of sweetness over time. Allulose is not metabolized by the digestive system and therefore its effective calorie value is so low. It can be used in baking which is one of the problems with aspartame (it loses its sweetness when it is heated). Allulose can provide desirable browning when baking and also adds bulk and texture like sugar. Currently the product is sold as a syrup.

Yes it happens all the time. I just tell them I lost 115 pounds recently and my stomach is now the size of an egg. I am full and can you please bring a carry-out box so that I can take the rest of the meal home with me for later.

Did you have any previous WLS? Sometimes there is scarring from prior surgeries that make subsequent surgeries more difficult.

Most drug stores sell pill splitters and pill crushers. They are fairly inexpensive. Do you really need an electric one? I used the pill crushers for the larger pills such as the Citracal Calcium supplements and a pill splitter for the smaller ones. Fortunately, my ability to swallow improved so that around the 2 or 3 month mark I was able to swallow even the largest pills.

The three most important elements after gastric bypass surgery are meeting the Protein, Vitamin and Fluid requirements. It can be a little rough during the first few days after surgery getting onboard with the regiment because your body is in a heal mode. But as you get more in line with the program your energy levels should return. I am 28 months post-op RNY surgery. I do not remember having a problem with energy. Energy seems a strange word from my perception. To me the real word should be stamina, which is the ability to perform physical labor. I am 66 and after surgery I found that my stamina improved to that of when I was in my 30's. Last year I moved 100,000 pounds of gravel and 50,000 pounds of concrete blocks by hand and this year I moved around the same amount. Stamina !

I think it is very common for people to have anxiety just before weight loss surgery.

Wow! Checked out of the hospital 7 1/2 hours after sleeve surgery and went home. Is this common?

My wife has been suggesting that we buy some essential oils. Some of these oils are therapeutic grade and used for medicinal purpose. Aromatherapy, or essential oils, form the base of many household favorites. For example, tea tree oil supply the medicinal taste in old-style Listerine. Vicks Vapor Rub contains rosemary. Essential oils have many therapeutic uses, although one of the most important uses is in treating or preventing infection. So I thought that is a manly thing to do since I saw someone on Doomsday Peppers using it. So I ordered some books on the subject and they should arrive on Monday. That way I can figure out which oils I should order. I am going to turn 67 this month, so I am not a spring chicken. So I called my daughter and told her that I am turning New Age in my Old Age. When you come to visit I can mix up some oils for you take home when the grandkids get sick. I could visualize her rolling her eyes. She said "Sure Dad"! This is probably what happens when you do not get enough sleep. You talk about becoming New Age in your Old Age. Maybe I should grow long hair and wear a set of Hippy beads around my neck. The last couple nights I have been getting up at 2 A.M and working until 8 A.M. It turns out that I am almost out of bandwidth for this month. I am allowed 10 gigabytes per month and I ran out. But my internet provider also gives me bonus free internet bandwidth, but you guessed it. It is only available between 2 A.M and 8 A.M.

I am 28 months post-op from RNY so the advice that I offer may not apply to Sleeve patients. I found that softer foods such as chili and Soups went down much easier than harder foods such as steaks. So I started making highly Protein fortified chili and soups. Some recipes are included in a short article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf Protein is very important if you want to build up some muscle mass and do not like your hair falling out. So protein supplements (Protein shakes and protein bars) are good throughout the day.

This reminds me of another story. Dr. Robert Adkins introduced the world to low carb diets. One day he slipped and fell on the ice injuring his head. That sent him to the hospital in a coma for which he never recovered. His body was pumped full of fluids (like ours during surgery) and when he finally died, he weighed significantly more than when he entered the hospital. A vegetarian advocacy group called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) surreptitiously obtained a copy of his private medical records and used it to attack a dead man, Dr. Adkins and the Adkin's diet. [They then apparently made false claims that he was obese at the time of his death, that his diet didn't work and that he died of a heart attack.] That's low! http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-02-10-atkins-health_x.htm

Congratulations on the 50 pounds that you have lost thus far and the additional weight that you will lose in the months ahead. I am 28 months post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery. I was in the "Weight Loss" phase for about 6 or 7 months and in "Maintenance" phase ever since. My weight is fairly stable. I have lost an additional 15 pounds in the "Maintenance" without really trying or worrying about it. I have documented my observations in a short article which is available at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

Good luck on your surgery. Keep posting and let us know how you are doing and if you run into any problems or questions along the way.

All I can say is FANTASTIC

It doesn't bother me. Actually it helps because I find google search is the best way to find things posted on this site. This is the type of world we live in. Our whole life is on-line. So if you are a private person, then don't use your real full name (as I did) as your I.D. or include too much detail in your profile. Most people don't. John VBD, if you are worried, I suspect that if you delete some of the details in your profile, that within a week or two, the search engine crawlers will track the changes and puff, it (the personal markers) will disappear.

And the really bad thing is that I do not even look like my DMV photo anymore. I am 75 pounds below that stated on my drivers license. My face looks like a round ball in the photo. When they ask to see my driver's license when I write a check, I look to see if the cashier/store clerk even looks at the photo. I sometimes wonder if they will take me away in handcuffs for impersonating ME.

A quick web search links 24 Possible Causes of Abdominal Pain combined with Dizziness http://www.healthline.com/health/abdominal-pain-and-dizziness You might want to go through this list and start striking them off and see what is left.

In order to give birth to a healthy child, it is important to have some weight gain. When my wife and I went through Natural Childbirth classes 40 years ago, the nominal number was 35 pounds minimum at full term. My wife is short. She is 4' 11". At the time she became pregnant, she weighted around 95 pounds. At full term she had gained 52.5 pounds. She had no problem losing the weight with the first nor the second child. Both my children were born without any physical defects or mental retardation. The directions for food during pregnancy are very similar to those for weight loss: Protein, and plenty of Vitamin C and stay away from unhealthy foods such as potato chips. And plenty of exercise.

The amount of Protein you consume is the sum of the protein from meals combined with the protein from supplements (Protein shakes and protein bars). At 3 months out, you meal volume has increase. If you are concentrating on consuming high protein meals, this gives you the option of reducing the amount of protein supplements that you need to take to meet your minimum requirements and the extra calories they contain. I hit a plateau around the same timeframe and I dropped a Protein shake (3 per day down to 2) and my stall came to an end.

I am 28 months post-op RNY surgery. So I don't know how well this applies to sleeve patients. Weight loss is achieved during the "Weight Loss" phase through portion control (meal volume). During this phase RNY patients need to restrict their intake of fats and sugars because the portion of their stomach that processes these has been cut away and taking them can result in dumping syndrome. Once you bottom out and enter the "Maintenance" phase, the ground rules change a little. The goal is to control hunger. Generally my nutritionist recommends a balance between Protein, carbs and fats. [At this stage, my intestines have stepped in and have taken over the function of processing fats and sugars replacing what was lost by my stomach.] So for my meals, I shoot for a balance but I always apply the "protein first" rule. I incorporate fats in meals and Snacks to control hunger. Because I once had diabetes, I avoid process sugars like a plague. I limit my complex carbs (Pasta, bread, etc.] to one meal a day.