catwoman7

all of my consults charged a fee. They were something like $100-150 for each one. I can totally understand this as you're taking an hour of their time, and there's no guarantee you're going to go with them. I can see why they wouldn't want to spend a huge chunk of their day seeing people for free who may not even become patients of theirs. They'll usually apply the consultation fee to your surgery if you decide to go with them. I don't think it has anything to do with confidence as two of my consults were with nationally-known surgeons who work with massive weight loss patients. People come from all over the country to have surgery with them. that said, if you're really opposed to these fees, then go see what #1 and #2 have to say. If you're not crazy about either one or they have wildly different ideas on what needs to be done (and some do...), then it might be worth it to pay a fee to a surgeon #3 for a tie-breaker if you really can't decide. my first two surgeons had very different ideas on what to do with me. One was nationally known and the other an up-and-comer who seemed very competent and had done a boatload of these surgeries. I was kind of thinking it might be better to go with the nationally-known one, but I wasn't 100% sure. So I decided to go to a third surgeon, also nationally-known, for his opinion. I knew his quote (not the consult fee - but his quote for the surgery) would be way more than the other two because he's known to be pricey, but I figured it was worth the $100 to at least get his opinion so I could decide between surgeon #1 and #2. Well, I liked him so much I ended up going with him, although that's another story... most surgeons put the LBL scar below your underwear line, so I wouldn't worry about that. You can't see mine at all if I have my underwear on - and even then, it's SUPER thin, so it's not obvious even when I'm clothes-less!

all the stuff you have to do is very common. It bugged me at first, too, but it gave me a lot of time to thoroughly research the surgery and the requirements of post-op life, practice habits I'd need for after surgery, etc. I felt very prepared by the time I went under the knife. The six months ended up going quickly, and I'm now grateful for them.

you'll lose weight quickly at first, but eventually (timing depending on how much weight you have to lose), you'll slow down to the more typical 1-2 lbs a week. BUT...you'll lose as long as you stick to your plan. And you won't fail if you're committed to your program and follow the rules. The most weight I'd ever been able to lose pre-surgery was 60 lbs - which I promptly regained. There were many times I lost 20 or 30 lbs - only to regain. This was the only thing that "worked" for me. btw - I lost 16 lbs the first month, then 10-12 lbs a month for maybe the next six months, then 5-8 lbs a month until I was about a year out. Then it became outrageously slow - maybe 2-3 lbs a month - until it stopped.

I never had one of those cards, but I've heard not all places accept them. Not sure if there's anything you can do about it if they're not going to accept it. A lot of places don't really have kids' meals we can eat, though - hotdogs, chicken nuggets, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. I looked at kids' menus a lot early after surgery (thinking I could at least ask for one of the meals), but I rarely saw any that would "work" for me.

no - I wasn't given any.

yes. Very normal.

as long as you're following your plan, you should be OK. I had a few stalls along the way but didn't stop losing until I was 18-20 months out.

I think that's pretty common when making the decision to have surgery. I, too, thought I could try once again to lose it on my own, but I leveled with myself. What would make this time any different from the other 1000 times I've done it? Losing weight and gaining it back was pretty much the story of my entire adult life. Weight loss surgery was the only thing that ever worked for me. I'm glad I had it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

I eat the broth first, then the solids.

a lot of people seem to experience a "hormone dump" in the weeks after surgery. Maybe it's that??

if you're following your plan, then it's just "the three week stall". The vast majority of us have our first stall within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery. It's so common we give it that name! (it usually happens during the third week...but not always. Mine was weeks 2 & 3)

just wondering - do you have to make this decision soon? You could always sit on it for a few months if you need the time. You can stay on PPI's in the mean time. It sounds like you're not ready to take the plunge and have revision surgery, so maybe it'd be better to wait awhile until you're more confident of your decision (??)

P.S. I agree with the poster who suggested looking at realself. I spent a lot of time looking at that and also researching some surgeons people had talked about here on BP. I came up with a short list of about 10 people, then I narrowed it down to three to do consults with. I would recommend doing more than one consult because some surgeons will have very different ideas about what to do than others will. I found the consults really interesting and educational. Most surgeons now seem to charge a nominal fee for consults - like around $100 or so - but they'll apply that to your surgery if you go with them. It's worth it, even if you pay consult fees to some surgeons you end up not going with.

I've had it (lower body lift, breast lift, arm lift). It's painful and the recovery can be long, but you muddle through it and it's worth it in the end. My new body looks great and I'd do it again! I was told when I started thinking about this to expect about $8000-$10,000 per procedure, with the lower body lift counting as two procedures (since they're doing so much there - front & back). I had three consults, and I found that rule-of-thumb to ring true. So with all my procedures, around $40,000. Of course, that depends on your surgeon and your location (and some more minor things - like if you have it done in a hospital vs. ambulatory surgery center, whether or not you spend the night, etc - although those latter things only make a difference of a few hundred dollars)...but at least that gives you a good ballpark. you can also look at surgeons in Mexico. As you would with surgeons here, research, research, research. There are some good ones and some not so good ones. Prices there will be quite a bit cheaper - maybe half of what they are in the US.

just stick to your program. Stalls happen and they're annoying. As long as you're sticking to your plan, though, they'll eventually break and you WILL lose the weight.

you won't die. The mortality rate on RNY is 0.3%. It's even lower for the sleeve. So you have at least a 99.7% chance of coming through surgery just fine - and you will. This is one of the safest surgeries out there, safer than hip replacement surgery, which they do every day. To be honest, I think my plastic surgery might have been more dangerous than my RNY, given I was under anesthesia for six hours with that (and only about 90 minutes for RNY). complications aren't that common and when they do exist, they're usually minor. I had a stricture, which happens to about 5% of RNY patients. It's an easy fix and I was told it's one of the most common complications of RNY. I would hardly call something that happens to 5% of patients "common", but that's what you're dealing with (i.e., a pretty small risk of complications) I know it's hard not to be scared about it - I was as well, but try to keep in mind this is a very low-risk procedure.

only about 30% of RNYers dump. I know many (including myself) who have never dumped. For those who DO dump, it can be controlled by limiting your sugar intake, which we all should be doing *anyway*. there's been a lot of press lately about PPI's being fine for the short-term but not the long-term. I don't know if the jury is still out on that or not, but it's been in the news a lot the last year or two.

I wonder if the "quick drunk" thing is more common in RNY patients since the pyloric valve is bypassed. Liquids go directly into our intestines (and right into our blood stream). I know alcoholism is a risk with any WLS, but the rapid intoxication may be more of an issue with RNY. I don't know this for a fact, though...

I agree with the above response. If you're thinking a drink or two once a month or something, then yes. If on a regular basis, then you could be playing with fire. Alcoholism rates are supposedly much higher in bariatric surgery patients than it is in the normal population because of transfer addiction.

I've had a drink (or two) exactly three times since my surgery over four years ago. I also get drunk really fast.

that's weird. I was allowed to eat as many sugar free popsicles as I wanted. They're sugar free, after all - and like 25 calories. Also, I was allowed to count them toward my fluid intake.

The headache might be from carb withdrawal. I think i had one for the first couple of days

60-70% is the average so that's usually the target surgeons will give you. Of course, there are people who lose more or less than the average. I lost 100% of my excess weight, but I was told only about 10% of people end up doing that. I can tell you that I worked by butt off to do that. So yes, it's possible, but you have to be super committed to do it. Edited to add that that 10% figure that my surgeon's office gave me is pretty consistent with what I've read in medical literature as well. Not sure where you're getting that 80-100% figure, but that's not reflected in peer-reviewed studies that have been done on this. you may see better success rates among people who participate in sites such as these than you will in the general bariatric population (although this is just speculation on my part - I've never actually read studies that say this) because people who continue with support groups or with online forums or stay involved with the bariatric community in other ways long after they've had surgery are probably more likely to keep their head in the game and may be more likely to reach and maintain their goals - but again, that's just speculation on my part and I may be totally off-base. I have been involved with this and other internet forums for the last five or six years and stayed pretty much 100% committed to my plan the whole time I was losing weight. I almost never went off. Again, you have to remain super committed if you want to lose 100% of your excess weight.

I'm guessing your center sells these things. Mine doesn't sell shakes, so they let us use any brand of whey protein isolate shakes.

you'd know by now if you had a leak hair loss - pre-ops and early post-ops often worry incessantly about this (I did, too!), but most of us don't lose enough that other people notice. If you're worried about losing big clumps of hair and having bald patches like someone who's on chemo, well, that is kind of rare. I actually hardly lost any hair at all. But even if I had, I'd take temporary hair loss any day over weighing over 300 lbs again. ANY DAY!! most people (not all - but most) do have a substantial decrease in hunger/appetite - for many it goes away completely for several months. So yes - the loss of hunger/appetite does make it much easier to eat small portions. For most of us, it does come back after a few months, though, and things get more challenging then.