catwoman7

another thing to consider is follow-up. At my clinic (and I'm sure most others), I had to go back after 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months for follow-up appts. And then we're encouraged to go yearly after that (I do, but i don't think most patients do after the first year). Since it would be impractical to fly to NY for all of those, you'd have to make sure your PCP was willing to do that. And of course they don't know as much about the surgeries as a bariatric surgeon would. complications can happen, but they're pretty uncommon. I'm guessing the person you know who had issues was one of a handful of patients out of the hundreds they've had. I'm sure NYU Langone has probably had some that haven't turned out well, either. With some cases, it may not have even been due to anything the surgeon did. You can always check the reviews on each of the surgeons and see what people said about him/her.

the only question of yours that I can personally answer is the one about the mortality rates. Mortality rate on gastric bypass is 0.3% (sleeve is a bit lower than that, but I can't remember what it was since I didn't have sleeve). Suffice it to say, you have a 99.7% chance of not dying. Those are excellent odds - better than hip replacement surgeries, and they do those all the time. I read all kinds of crap like that before I had surgery and had to make myself stop. I guess it's good to know what COULD happen, but dying during/after surgery and having other major complications is REALLY rare. I wouldn't worry about it.

very common. Many women experience mood swings and/or screwed up menstrual cycles for the first few months after surgery. It's supposedly because estrogen is stored in fat cells, and it gets released during rapid weight loss. It'll stabilize once your weight loss slows down. It can take a few weeks or months.

Gastric sleeve is such a common surgery these days that I don't think I'd make the trek to New York for it. If the place in Orlando has been doing weight loss surgeries for awhile and you've heard good things about it, I'd just do it there. I did travel for my plastic surgery because I wanted someone who was really top notch, but I don't think it makes as much difference with sleeve or bypass (maybe duodenal switch - or various revisions - but not straight sleeve or bypass) P.S. to answer your question - no, I haven't had experience with either one. But I've never heard of people traveling that far for sleeve (or bypass) surgeries - unless you're talking going to a place like Mexico to have it done for much less than most places charge in the US. P.P.S. I just googled reviews of the bariatric surgery unit at Advent Health. Those surgeons all have stellar reviews. And I'm not talking 10 reviews - there are over 100 reviews for each of them. I don't think you'd have to worry about going there...

weight loss after revisions is almost always slower than after virgin surgeries, so it could be partly that - or it could be just fluid (due to a heavier-than-usual sodium intake, maybe?). Also, it could be if you've exercised more than usual, your muscles are holding on to water (they need it for repair, if you're going at it more than usual, or have done something they're not accustomed to). Or have you been eating more carbs than usual? Those make you hold on to more water as well. At any rate, if you've been on plan as far as eating, you should be fine - it's likely just some temporary thing and you should start losing again..

yes - I had the same problem since I had the same reaction to either the surgical glue or the tape that my plastic surgeon used. I broke out in hives a day or two after surgery, but it was too early for him to remove the tape, so he put me on prednisone (I think for a week or maybe 10 days) to calm down my immune system until it was safe for him to remove the tape. There were no issues with that and my RNY.

the other thing is, most people do experience a 10-20 lb rebound from their lowest weight during years 2 or 3 - so your regain is normal That's not to say that you can't take it off again, but yea - it'll take work. Good luck to you!! (as I mentioned above, I'm working on that myself!)

back then, no. I was "overweight" as a teen, not obese, and the surgeries back in those days weren't nearly as safe as they are today. If I was a teen NOW, with the safer surgeries, I probably still wouldn't since I wasn't all that overweight. If on the other hand, I was really obese (and we're talking really obese - not 20 or 30 lbs) - not sure. I doubt I would have had the discipline to stick to the rules and guidelines at that age, so maybe not.

it think it was about a year before I was 100 lbs down, and our stats are about the same. You'll get there. I just checked where i was at eight months out - down 94.4 lbs. so yea....our stats are pretty much the same! You'll probably hit the 100 lb mark in another month or two. Just keep at it!

it happens when you eat too much sugar or fat in one sitting (usually it's sugar - but some people dump on fat). It moves pretty quickly into your small intestine, and your intestines go into overdrive trying to deal with it. Most common symptoms are dizziness, heart palpitations, sweating or chills, diarrhea (vomiting can happen, but not as common). From what I understand, it can go on for a couple of hours.. It happens to about 30% of bypass patients (I've never dumped, and I don't know too many people who have). It's not very common in sleevers, but it's not unheard of. Not sure how long it takes to occur after eating - probably fairly soon, since bypassers' food goes into the small intestine fairly quickly since our pyloric valve has been bypassed.

if you're anywhere close to a normal BMI (including the "overweight" category), weight loss is going to be excruciatingly slow. I put on 10 lbs over the past year and am now trying to take it off. About 1/2 lb a week is about all I can manage. The reason is, your calorie intake now is probably MUCH lower than before you had surgery. So there are a lot fewer calories you can afford to cut. For example, when I weighed well over 300 lbs, I was probably eating over 3000 calories a day. Pretty easy to find 1000 - or even 1500 - calories in there that could be cut. That means it was theoretically possible for me to lose 2-3 lbs a week (since a pound is 3500 calories). Now, after my weight loss, my maintenance level is about 1600 calories/day. Cutting 1000 calories from that would put me at 600 cal/day. Ah...no way. You'd have to be under medical supervision to eat at that level. And deducting 1500 calories? That would put me at 100 calories a day. So....no. About the most I can cut and still maintain my health - and not be under medical supervision - is 300-400 calories a day. At a 300 kcal deficit per day, that's a 2100 calorie deficit a week - so a little over 1/2 a pound. If I dropped down to 1200 cal/day, then we're talking a 2800 calorie deficit, so maybe 3/4 of a pound a week (and of course, things like activity level, how muscular you are, etc, would also factor into this - but it probably wouldn't make a significant difference). So I have been eating about 1300 calories a day for the last six weeks, so theoretically I would be down 3.6 lbs. I'm actually down about 5 lbs, so I'm doing very well! if I had dieted for six weeks when I weighed over 300 lbs, I probably could have lost 15-20 lbs by now. But nope - 5. my point of all this is, you may be losing, but at a much lower weight, it's going to be S-L-O-W. And if you're at a normal - or near-normal - BMI, we're talking ounces rather than pounds. It WILL come off - but it'll be slow. I used to mentally roll my eyes at these barely overweight women who would moan and complain at how hard it was to lose 10 lbs. "Ha", I thought, "try losing 200 pounds!". Now I get it...

very true. I love biking and anything in a pool, so for me, it's fun to do that. I look forward to going. I do not love weight training, but I do it because people are supposed to - but it's a chore for me and I have to make myself do it. It would be very easy for me to give it up (but alas, I can't....). So anyway, suffice it to say, if it's something you enjoy doing, you're very likely to keep doing it.

I agree - walking is a great start. I'm not sure what kinds of exercise you like, but there are many fitness videos on youtube, too - indoor walking videos, dancing videos, yoga videos, and even weightlifting (or other strength-training - like resistance band) videos. I exercise to youtube videos when the weather is too bad to go outside.

it's when you go through a period (usually about 1-3 weeks) when you don't lose any weight - or maybe gain and lose the same pound for a 1-3 week stretch - even though you're sticking to your program.

I don't think that particular intolerance is very common - although food intolerances in general are. I know a lot of people have trouble with certain meats (like chicken breast) early out, but I don't remember reading posts about people having issues with it two years out (although maybe there are - but given the lack of posts (and I've been on this site for eight years), I'm guessing it's not very common. But like I said, certain food intolerances after WLS arent' at all unusual. Things like pasta, rice, eggs - I read about those pretty frequently. Or various artificial sweeteners - that seems to be a big one.

wow - so many positive things happening in your life right now! That's fantastic! And congrats on your loss - you look great!! and re; tight pants - they'll never be able to get me out of leggings! I'm built like a linebacker (broad shoulders, broad chest, muscular arms, no waistline) - and have no butt, no hips, and thin thighs. So I tend to gravitate toward slightly oversized tops (preferably with a V-neck so I don't have a huge horizontal span across my chest), and leggings, since the bottom half of me is fine - as in perfectly normal (even on the thin side). Then people are more apt to notice my legs first (at least, I hope so!). If I wear skirts, or dresses, or baggy pants, I look at least 10 lbs heavier than I am. So - no baggy pants for me! (besides, I'm in my 60s - I don't give a hoot about what's in style any more!)

first, I used to live not far from there (Boone and Banner Elk, NC) - went to the Tri-Cities all the time! (that was about 40 years ago, though...). I still have a brother who lives in the NC mountains, though. secondly, not many bariatric surgeons do the DS - so I'd be surprised if there were any in the Tri-Cities area, but just googling it, I did find some surgeons in Knoxville who do it. I also saw a place in Asheville, NC and of course, Charlotte (NC), but Knoxville may be your closest bet. But someone on here from the area might know - if so, hopefully they'll see this.

yes. Huge difference.

^^^ this is such a terrific video. It's my second time watching it. Clinics should be recommending this to all pre-op patients!

the SADI patients may be posting under DS. SADI isn't traditional DS, but it's kind of similar. I didn't have SADI or DS, but I never had issues with my surgery either. No pain, no weird things - part of me wondered if he'd even done the surgery!

your stall is actually late - most people have their first major stall around the three week mark (in fact, if you search this site for info on the "three week stall", you will find over 17,000 posts on it. And no, I am NOT kidding...) actually, I just decided to do the search for you. Here you go - 17,501 posts now! https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

as long as you know how many calories it takes to maintain your weight - and track your food intake to be sure you're not going over that (except for an occasional "splurge" day, like on a holiday - in which case you just get right back on track the next day), you should be OK. Also, decide on what your top acceptable weight is, and once you get there, it's all hands on deck to get it back down again before it gets out of hand. as for the hunger, I'm guessing your body is probably happy where it is and doesn't want to lose weight. That's not to say you can't, but it'll be a struggle, because you'll be fighting biology. I'm dealing with the same thing right now. I want to lose 10 lbs - but the old body doesn't. You'll have to decide if it's worth the struggle. For some people it is, for others it's not. If you want to lose but the hunger is really bad, there are medications to control that (Wegovy might be one (??) - not sure - but they're out there). Some clinics are fine with prescribing those to you, others aren't - but it sounds like your is OK with it.

at two years out, she should be getting double the number of calories she's getting now (if not more - depends on her height, weight, activity level, etc) - unless she's super short or has really screwed up metabolism or something. 662 calories is only common in the first few months after surgery, not at two years out. re: the 10 lb gain, most of us gain 10-20 lbs after hitting our lowest weight, so that's not uncommon. It's almost expected...(not inevitable, but it happens to most people) protein - most of us are encouraged to get 60-80 grams a day. I need 100, but that's because we discovered early on that I malabsorb it - my prealbumin level tanks if I don't get that much. But I'm not the norm. 300 is crazy. No one needs that much - not even body builders. That's so weird that the app is telling her that!! you mentioned an RD - might be a good idea for her to see one to get some good advice and guidelines on what/how she should be eating. She may have some issues that we don't necessarily know about (like me and my protein issue....)

when I was in the weight loss phase, I weighed myself daily except for when I was in a stall - then I'd just weigh about once a week until the stall broke. Once I hit maintenance, I started weighing about once a week.

I was always able to drink more than they said I would be able to. I was concerned about it, but the PA at my clinic said my stomach would let me know if I was overdoing it.