catwoman7

check with "The World According to Eggface" (blog) - she has a lot of recipes for every stage

ranitidine (Zantac) is actually an H2 blocker rather than a PPI - and a lot of people got moved over to them when all the bad press started coming out a couple of years ago about PPIs. They say Tagamet - another H2 blocker - is still OK, so you could ask about that. But I don't know what on earth people are supposed to do now...

yes a lot of people seem to be pretty carb-sensitive. I'm pretty sure I'm not - but I know a lot of people on here *are*.

I think people are more likely to eat those kinds of things (or a limited amount, anyway) once they hit maintenance. Or at least I hope so. I didn't touch anything like that while I was in weight loss mode - and I don't eat much of it now that I'm in maintenance (actually, just bread - occasionally. I still don't/won't eat pasta)

people's tastes are so different that you're bound to get a bunch of different recommendations. I got a bunch of individual packets to try to see what I liked - cheaper than buying those big two-pound tubs and discovering you hate it after plunking down $30+ for the tub. that said, my personal favorites were Unjury and Syntrax powders. But again, you're going to get a lot of different answers...

are you on a PPI, such as omeprazole (Prilosec)? A lot of surgeons have their patients take it for the first six months or so post-surgery.

oh yea - pineapple is pretty acidic. I couldn't eat much of it even BEFORE surgery...

I believe stenosis and stricture are the same thing. I haven't heard that they can heal themselves - they usually keep getting worse until they're stretched, but of course your surgeon would know way more than I do...

if you're sure you're eating slowly enough and this keeps up, call your surgeon again. It doesn't say when you had surgery, but strictures are not uncommon when you're 1-3 months post-op (they're pretty rare after the three month mark).

I had two - first one was a lower body lift. I think that one was about four hours. The second was an arm lift and a breast lift - he also made incisions down each side from my arm pit past my waist (to get rid of "side boob" and pull off some of the excess skin that was under my rib cage that he was unable to reach during the LBL). That surgery was six hours long.

no - RNY is different. It's a gastric (i.e., stomach) bypass - although a small part of the small intestine is bypassed with the RNY, too. The DS has a sleeve stomach + most of the small intestine bypassed. converting from VSG (sleeve) to DS is very straightforward. VSG is essentially phase 1 of the DS - so you already have that. They'd just add the intestinal bypass part of it (phase 2) to do your DS. conversion from RNY to DS is very complicated. They have to take down the RNY, then do a sleeve stomach, and then do the intestinal bypass. Not many surgeons do this surgery.

^^ what he (she?) said. And yes - a sleeve-to-DS conversion is easy, since you already have a sleeved stomach (DS'ers have a sleeved stomach plus an intestinal bypass). It's a pretty straightforward conversion - they just add the intestinal part since you've already had the VSG part. An RNY-to-DS conversion is much more complicated.

people with acid reflux usually revise to RNY. It usually improves - if not outright cures - reflux.

you might be what they call "spitting a suture". If that's what it is, you get these red painful bumps and then a suture pops out - they usually look like nylon fishing line. If it's not full of pus and not hot to the touch and the red isn't spreading, it's probably not infected - but you could contact a doctor just in case (for peace of mind, if nothing else). I didn't have those with my weight loss surgery, but I did with plastic surgery. My surgeon had to pull a couple of them out because they were irritating me so much. Those internal sutures eventually dissolve - but it can take awhile.

it's such an individual thing which so many things factor into - age, gender, starting BMI, metabolic rate, whether or not you lost weight prior to surgery, etc. One of things you'll constantly hear is that it is pointless to compare yourself to other people, since the only thing you have control over is whether or not you stick to your surgeon's plan. that said, and this is just from hanging out on this and other boards for the last five years, I would say most of us lose in the 15-25 lb range the first month. Of course you will find people who lose more or less than that, but the majority of us are somewhere in that range.

I wouldn't think it would be as common since DS'ers have a sleeved stomach - so they'd still have a pyloric valve. Sugar wouldn't hit the small intestine nearly as fast as it would with an RNY'er. But then, I'm not a medical person, so take that with a grain of salt.

oh =- I should have added that if you're not going to be having muscle tightening or liposuction as part of your panniculectomy, your recovery is likely to be easier. Those two things can be pretty painful (I had both)

not keeping down food is one thing - people can go without food for a few days (although even then, I'd contact a medical professional). Not being able to keep down fluids is quite another. I'd go to the ER, too.

some people just go to their PCP after the first year or so. Most of them have enough understanding of bariatric surgery these days that they can help with this.

I'm retired, so that really didn't apply to me. However, after my LBL, I was out & about and driving about 10-12 days after the surgery, I think - so you may be OK with taking two weeks off. Granted, I still had a lot of discomfort, but at least I could drive and get out by then..

yes - you want someone who has done a truckload of these things. Body contouring surgery on massive weight loss patients is a complicated subspecialty, so you want someone who does this all the time - preferably someone who specializes in this area - or barring that, at least someone who does A LOT of them (like maybe half their case load). Check realself.com for ideas. It's a site where people rate their doctors and discuss their experiences. It's all kinds of doctors, not just plastic surgeons -- although the majority of the reviews seem to be on plastic surgeons.

I had a lower body lift 14 months ago (which is the whole lower body - not just a panniculectomy). Recovery from that was much tougher than it was from gastric bypass. I had hardly any pain at all from bypass surgery. The first week of LBL recovery was pretty painful. After that, it was more discomfort than pain. But it was all worth it in the end. I'd do it again.

the only thing I've heard is you should wait at least two hours between calcium doses (because your body can only absorb around 500 mg at a time) and at least two hours between taking calcium and iron. I take calcium throughout the day and then take my iron before i go to bed so it doesn't interfere with anything.

probably the food factor (we're talking a cruise, right?). That would be a tough minefield to navigate - at least for me!!

I was wondering that myself at one point - but I think I remember reading that it's not really an issue unless you already have kidney issues. I think kidney pain is in your back - just under your rib cage.