perforce

Good luck! I hope everything goes in your favour (I was really tempting to write 'may the odds be ever in your favour' there)

It sounds to me like you have already really decided on the sleeve surgery and you're waiting for someone to agree to give you 'permission' (for want of a better word) to go against what the support groups told you? Here's the thing, no one can tell you what surgery is right for you, you do your own research and come to you own conclusions for what will work best for your own situation. There are pros and cons for each. In my case, I don't know what country I'll end up in next, and I didn't like the idea of having to limits myself to places near a surgery/clinic that could do fills fore me. I also don't like what I've read about it being more difficult to get healthier food through the band, the band slippages and general failure rates that seems quite frequent with the band (apologies to banded members, I do of course realise that there are also complications with the sleeve to contend with and that there are bandsters out there who have had nothing but success with their surgery). I wasn't crazy about the idea of having a foreign object in my body. For these reasons, I felt the sleeve was right for me. Other people may not like the idea of the procedure not being reversible, or the threat of GERD/other complications. Sleeve surgery removes a major part of your stomach, and that can be a step too far ahead of what a lot of people are comfortable with, both mentally and physically. As surgery goes, the removal is a bigger jump to contemplate. If you want the sleeve, have the sleeve, but research carefully with whatever you decide to make sure you're doing this safely.

Okay, I answered this half way through instead of reading the rest of thread and I think the point I was making was pretty well covered, feel free to ignore me and continue.

Classes are not a requirement everywhere for self pay, the experience in different places in the US seems to be very different, not to mention outside of the US. I'm self pay from the UK, will be flying to Prague for surgery, and there is really not other support, I fly over, turn up the day before surgery for all the tests, and assuming everything is OK will have surgery the next day. There is no pre-op diet aside form don't eat from X time the day before, I have been given basic information in terms of the fact that there are 3 phases after for eating, and been told to stop certain Vitamins one or two weeks before. As it is, I have done my research and have, I believe, a pretty good idea of what to ask and expect, but that isn't the case for everyone.

My mum was hugely unsupportive when I first broached the topic of surgery with her (and the fact that I was considering it), which actually really surprised me. I tried talking to her about it twice and each time she got very negative, so I just made the decision to move on without including her (my parents are divorced and I wasn't living with her, so it was doable). A couple of months ago I was making concrete plans about everything and out of the blue during a skype chat she mentioned that the husband of a work colleague had had it done and it was working well for him, and she was then totally fine talking about it. I don't know if it was that example that really changed her mind, or if she just realized she had the option of getting on the train or getting off the tracks, but I'm now able to talk to her about the prep and she doesn't react badly. I'm glad because I didn't like being at odds with her (or just having to refrain from talking about this huge part of my life) but only you can make the choice of what you class as the most important thing to you. In the end you're doing the surgery for yourself, not for those people, and you have the right to cut them out of this particular part of your life, even when they are close family.

I emailed the people and was told that it would be best not to be, I asked them why and got no straight answer? They've told me to take those tablets that delay the start of your period to stop me being on it when surgery comes around.

I'm going to be flying alone to Prague for my surgery, so I'm a little nervous. I know people react differently to pain levels etc, so I'm hoping I'm on the more comfortable end of things so that I can deal with caring for myself and getting through the airport on the way back. My family knows, so they will take care of me once I make it back, but for the actually surgery it's up to me.

Just tried the app and it now appears to be resolved - thanks very much.

I have been using the app successfully for some time, but I opened it today and it said the forum doesn't have a license to run in the app? I tried deleting and reinstalling, but same error message and then the app closes.

My clinic told me 3-4 nights (one of the reasons I chose them actually, I know of people have less, but I didn't want to feel like I was being pushed out of the door as I'm in a different country) plus a couple of days in a hotel after. It does vary a lot though, on your surgeon/clinic and on how you yourself respond to the procedure.

I was told I couldn't be on my period when having thus surgery and I'm a little worried because I'm not as regular ad I could be when it comes to this.

I'll be in England from Christmas onwards so I'll be close-ish (I'll be sleeved in February).

We've talked about her negative reaction as much as either of us are willing to, sometimes it's better to take a breath and move forward. I can talk about getting the surgery etc booked now without her getting angry and bitchy and that's more than I expected after our first two attempts at talking about it. Her fears, she claims, we're about the dangers of surgery. But I think there was a lot more going on internally for her than she was willing to admit to herself, with her food is love mentality and the fact that she is big herself so I belive she's feeling... judged? Kind of? Even though that's not the case. I also think that it makes her have to take a long hard look at her own weight and is just easier to get angry and be unsupportive than deal with that you know? I will not be staying with her when I get home (I'll be in my father's house and she lives 2.5 hrs away) so I'm just not going to see her until I feel more settled into post-op life as I don't want her opinions to affect me mentally if her attitude gets the better of her. I'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

I'm having mine done abroad too, in Europe (I'm from the UK and having it done in the Czech Republic because of costs), so it's not going abroad so much as the really long flight. I would maybe look into somewhere cheaper in a country a little closer to home. Or are you planning on staying in Mexico for a bit? (In which case you may be in better condition to do the flight after, though it would still be long and dehydrating)

Is that brand of shake only available in your doctor's practice? If not then I still say scam. I don't have a problem with them saying 'buy only this one', it's more 'buy them only from us'. Is that brand of shake only available in your doctor's practice? If not then I still say scam. I don't have a problem with them saying 'buy only this one', it's more 'buy them only from us'.

Can you somewhere outside of your survey office and get an xray/scan or something in your stomach? That way you know it's somebody removed from the process so far with no bias. That way if the sleeve us too big or something else is going on you have that as a back up when you go back to your surgeons office

I can understand them insisting on you doing liquids, but making you buy them only from then sounds a lot like a scam.

I thought I'd answered this topic but can't see it anywhere. I don't have a pre-op diet either, just reduce certain suppliers etc and no food the day before because I need to do my preop tests then. I thought it was because I'm travelling to get my surgery so they condense my preop stuff but I guess not.

I have no answers because I'm preop, but what job do you have? Its a shame you have to go back to work Christmas eve.

Ack, we posted the same time. Sorry you're in pain but glad things went well.

Hope everything went great and you're feeling OK.

That would be a really long flight pre and post op! Doable certainly, but there's nowhere closer you can get it done cheaper?

My mom was actually massively unsupportive when I told her, and continued to be for a few months, then one day I called her and she said a co-workers husband had had it done and lost a lot of weight and suddenly she didn't have a problem with it? It let me feeling vaguely insulted, but it's better than her attitude before so I just let it go.

No no, they're right to be knee jerk completely against the idea, because everyone knows before surgery this has never happened to any of us.

Groundhog day is when Americans check if winter is going to be longer right? Or more importantly, an awesome movie with Bill Murray. I have no NUT. Or pre op diet save reducing a few medicines and avoiding a few foods that naturally thin the blood. I'm self pay in Europe so the process is a little different. I already drink enough Water and I stopped drinking soda years ago when I was about 12, so neither of those is a worry. Not drinking through a meal is really going to suck for me, but I'm back home for the month before surgery so I think I'll start practicing then. I was initially meant for July 5th, but with me going back to the UK 6 months early I'm now free to have it done whenever they have an opening.