JamieLogical

That's actually untrue. There are typically internal stitches that dissolve over time and then the outside layer of skin is sealed with surgical glue that just wears off over the course of a couple of weeks. So there are no VISIBLE stitches, but they are actually there. Glue alone would not be enough to close a wound that goes through ALL of your layers of skin. Edit: Here's the quote from my surgical report about the incisions: "Initial incision site closure with Polypropylene 1-0 suture. The skin was closed with 5-0 Monocryl subdermal sutures and Dermabond."

Yes, the recovery time is less if you don't have muscle repair, because then it's just skin, nerve, and lymphatic system healing. The skin will heal pretty quickly. And while the nerve and lymphatic system will take longer to heal, their healing doesn't actually impede your activity. You will just experience numbness, phantom pain and itching, and a lot of swelling/water retention. But I *highly* recommend the muscle repair as well. It is what will give you a truly flat stomach and the ability to see some definition in your abs if/when you are able to work on strengthening them again. The recovery takes longer, but in the grand scheme of things, you will enjoy the benefit of it for years and years. If you are already having surgery anyway and already going to have to have SOME recovery time, it's worth the temporary pain and extra recovery time.

I have that situation going on with my fake boobs right now and I'm still 175 pounds! No one could accuse me of looking sickly!

I could not agree more! I do not know how I would have gotten through my pre-op or post-op journeys without it!

Yeah, it's a shame. I've been to Mexico twice for surgery and I hardly got to sight see on either trip. The time I went for plastics, I was there for two full weeks and toward the end of the trip, two of my nurses took me to the beach for part of the day. That was the extent of my sightseeing. When I went for my sleeve, I didn't see anything but the drive from the border to the Marriott, the drive from the Marriott to OCC and back, and then I did go out walking a LITTLE tiny bit on the street that the Marriott is on. I only made it to the corner convenience store, though, not the plaza with the Walmart up the hill. Maybe the smart thing to do would be to try to get there a day or two early and do a little sightseeing BEFORE your surgery?

I was really really worried about this too. I LOVE Water. It's all I ever drank even before surgery. So, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to drink it post-op or that I wouldn't like it anymore. I won't lie. It was SUPER rough getting in my water in the beginning. My post-op internal swelling made even the tiniest sip of water a huge ordeal for the first two weeks or so. Once the swelling was down, it was a lot easier, but I still wasn't able to get ALL of my water in, until I realized that it was much easier for me to drink SUPER cold water. Once I discovered that, I got a double-walled thermos-style water bottle, filled it with ice, and drank super cold water all day. Now I have no issues getting my water in. It's only ever a problem if I'm in an environment where I can't get ice water. Like somewhere that only has "cold" bottles of water. I need ICE in there. It has to be near freezing. So my advice to you is, if you are having issues getting your water in post-op, experiment with different temperatures. I know some people do a lot better with hot beverages post-op. And some people do better with room temperature water.

I agree. It's pretty disgraceful that any surgeon would perform surgery on a patient without ensuring they are FULLY informed about all of the steps they will have to take post-op to ensure the best possibly recovery and outcome. It reflects badly on the surgeons if their patients fail, so you would think it would be in their best interests to do everything in their power to help them succeed!

As counter-intuitive as it is, eating less will make you stall longer. The reason you stall out in week 3 is that your body is freaking out about all the changes. Eating too little just prolongs the freak-out and sends you into full-on self preservation mode. Trust and believe that getting in all of your Protein and sticking to the plan WILL make the scale move in the right direction again.

@@RNsleever715 If you haven't already, I highly recommend you ask the nutritionist to send you a copy of the post-op diet stages as well. I found it very useful for planning purposes, so I could be prepared for when I got home from Mexico.

Don't ask your coordinator. Ask Dr. Jimenez or Dr. So. You should have gotten their contact info in the email containing all the various phone numbers and email addresses. My coordinator was completely useless (no offense to her!). I never contacted her at all once they sent me that list of other contact information. I contacted the doctors, nutritionist, and travel coordinator directly.

Very normal. I got so fatigued by the end of my pre-op liquid diet that I could barely lift my arms to wash my hair in the shower! I was basically eating 450 calories a day which trying to live a normal life and with 100% of my stomach still. So of course I felt like crap!

Great! Any idea what it is? I'm like a traveling pharmacy... I'm always scared I'm gonna need something Unfortunately, I don't remember off the top of my head. I am sure I still have it written down somewhere at home. But if you email OCC (they should have sent you an email with all the contact info for various topics) I am sure they would give you a list of all the stuff they prescribe post-op. It seemed like a pretty standard set-up. There were 5 of us there the day of my surgery and they just had ready-made bags with all the drugs and printed instructions in them that they handed out to each of us. Edit: I called it my "bag o' drugs" and when I went back across the border to the US, I had it out of my suitcase, just loosely carrying it. I put it through the x-ray like my other bags and the border guard didn't even look at me sideways. I thought that was pretty funny!

Couldn't agree more! I am almost 4 years post-tummy tuck so all the pain and hardship of the recovery is a very distant memory, but I still enjoy the results EVERY SINGLE DAY! My flat stomach is probably my favorite part of my body now. I am so completely obsessed with it, even 4 years later!

My advice is to ramp up slowly. Work one are of the body per day (upper body day 1, lower body day 2, core day 3). Do 5-6 different exercises, 2 sets of 12-15 reps each. Start with low weights and 12 reps. Then work your way up to higher weights and more reps. Also, be sure to stretch well AFTER working out. Stretching cold muscles does more harm than good. Here's my current routine: Upper Body One-arm dumbbell rows Triceps kick-backs Dumbbell hammer curls Dumbbell flys Dumbbell lateral raises Wall push-ups Core Dumbbell side bends Dumbbell crunches Reverse crunches Bicycle crunches Back extensions Pendulums Plank (just hold as long as I can) Lower Body Single leg squats Lying single-leg raises Lying adduction Lying abduction Bridges

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!! Congrats! You must feel AMAZING!

I second @@Miss Mac 's concerns. At a week post-op, you should only be walking. I was allowed to do up to 60 minutes of "brisk walking" daily, but not all at once. I wasn't cleared for any strength training or intense cardio until 6 weeks post-op.

Sending positive thoughts and energy your way. I hope everything works out!

@@RNsleever715 If you are going to OCC and using Dr. Ortiz, he will prescribe you some anti-nausea meds for 14 days post-op, so you shouldn't have to bring your own.

Whether you track or not, you should definitely get a kitchen scale. I don't track my food anymore (did back when I was dieting over the years pre-op). But I still weigh a lot of my foods daily, just to measure out servings or partial servings. This was ESPECIALLY true in my early days post-op when I wasn't supposed to eat more than 2 oz. at a time. I would weight out 2 oz. of cottage cheese or whatever. Not for tracking purposes, just to be sure I didn't eat too much at once. Now that I'm 9 months out, I weigh food just to get correct serving sizes. Like I always pack a little Kashi Cereal or granola to add to my afternoon yogurt at work. I measure out 13 grams (1/4 serving) of that. First of all, because it's carbs and I do try to be mindful of carbs, even though I don't track them. And second of all, because loose stuff like that is hard to eyeball the right amount. I also use my food scale every single day when I add soy milk to my coffee to make sure I'm only adding 2 oz. Any more or less than that and it doesn't taste right!

@@Justoperated Tummy tuck + muscle repair recovery is serious business. It is a MUCH more extensive surgery than sleeve. The recovery takes much longer and is much more intense. It was several days before I could even get out of a hospital bed and use the bathroom on my own. I had to wear compression garments for 10 weeks. I didn't go back to work for 4 weeks and even then it was half days. And it was 3 months before I was allowed to do any ab/core work at all. I wasn't even allowed to try ANY running again until over 6 weeks post-op and I'd been running 5k a day prior to my TT.

I'm really surprised your surgeon didn't put you on a PPI immediately post-op. Excess acid is a VERY common problem for sleeve patients and too much acid can impede healing post-op. Most surgeons prescribe a PPI for the first month or two post-op and then longer if acid problems continue. I am 9 months post-op and still on 40mg omeprazole daily.

I think you know and understand that you look normal and healthy, so there's no sense in restating that. But the real issue here is that your coworker felt it was okay to make a comment like this. That's completely insane and I would seriously consider reporting her to a superior. It is NOT okay for people to think they can talk to anyone like that in a professional environment. I get offended when I hear my coworkers talking about each other like that behind each other's backs. If someone said something like that directly to me, you can bet I would report them!

When I tracked religiously, I wouldn't even eat at restaurants that didn't put their nutrition online. I put everything we cooked into a recipe calculator so I would know the exact calorie count and macronutrients for everything. I am vary OCD. It really drove my relatives crazy. I would literally make my parents and in-laws give me lists of not only ingredients, but BRANDS they used in any meals they prepared for us. I resolved that after I had my sleeve, I would NOT live that way. Now I will just do occasional "spot-checks" of my food on random days to make sure I'm where I really think I am in terms of calories and Protein, and leave it at that. I don't even have a calorie target in mind post-op. All I care about is getting in all my protein and that's easy enough to just keep a running tally of in my head most days.

Well, if you've had a tummy tuck with muscle repair as part of your mommy makeover, this is a thousand times easier than that. I had a tummy tuck with muscle repair back in 2011 and I couldn't even get out of a hospital bed or use a toilet by myself for DAYS afterward. With the VSG, I was in and out of bed and to the bathroom on my own the same day as my surgery, no problem. I mostly felt tired and gross, but nothing like the pain I was in with my TT. So if the TT was easy for you then VSG should be REALLY easy. One thing you won't know for sure until you have the surgery though is whether or not you'll have severe nausea and vomiting. I did not, but another girl who had her surgery the same day as me with the same doctor had it bad. Everyone is different.

For my gastric sleeve, I went to Obesity Control Center and had my surgery with Dr. Ariel Ortiz and Dr. Arturo Martinez. For my plastic surgeries I went to Beauty Enhance and had my surgery with Dra. Laura Carmina Cardenas.