Wheetsin

People will tell you otherwise, but honestly - there's not much you can do. It mostly depends on things like: your age the condition of your skin (sun damage, etc.) how overweight you have been how long you have been overweight genetic propensity lifestyle/health (smoking, etc.) how your extra weight was distributed on your frame Etc There's a lot of misinformation about this. Here are something I know and/or strongly believe to be accurate. Skin is an elastic organ. When stretched significantly, for a significant amount of time, you will have saggy skin. It really doesn't too much matter how quickly or slowly you lose the weight - this is more true the heavier you were (someome with 10 lbs to lose can lose it overnight and their skin is probably just fine, or they can lose it over a year and their skin is equally fine... someone with 300 lbs to lose can lose it overnight or over a year and either way their skin is toast). Exercising doesn't "shrink" the skin, though it can bulk up muscles which might give the appearance of the skin being less droopy. Compression garments do not tighten the skin. They can help shape the skin (e.g. during healing after PS) but they cannot tighten it. Those are all the urban legend type things I can think of off-hand...

My favorite crunchy - Hormel turkey pepperoni, microwave on a paper plate it until it's thoroughly cooked (it will stop sizzling and darken), but not burnt. While still hot, blot the grease off the top. Let cool. They get VERY crunchy - crunchier than chips. I like to eat them as scoops for cottage cheese or some garden vegetable cream cheese spread.

I have them. They're... just ok. I can't quite say they're yummy like Dooter or PDX (not that Dooter & PDX aren't yummy). They're not my favorite. I usually add a pump or two of a SF syrup. Maybe I'm just a sloppy drinker? But I also find they leave "flakes" on my mouth. I'd rate them a 6.5, maybe 7 on a 10 pt scale. Too bad you're not in KC, I'd give you one to try before you bought the whole case. I bought a case, thought they were OK, bought two more cases, then found my Isopure drinks and my Premiers will probably expire before I drink them. People tend to find one or two Proteins they gravitate to, and like anything else - what's delicious to you could be grody to me. Case in point, I despise black pepper, olives, horseradish, dijon, fennel, and anise. My husband adores every single one of those things.

Yeah, best advice is to do your research. You don't want to go into this oblivious. What's a chelonga?

We are the same height. I was 385 - 400 when I had my lapband, and got down to about 210. After my pregnancy I was around 250, then with a slip up to about 275, then after removal gained to about 350. (sigh) I'm now in the 280s, striving to get to where you are now.

Can you be a little more specifc? Like what kind of help you're wanting? Why you're scared? Are you sleeved? Wanting to be sleeved? What fears? I mean, you kinda left it a little too wiiiiiiiide open for much input.

There's a thread (stickied, I believe) of running MFP logins. You can use the search feature (or brose the forums) to find the thread, and add as many people from the list as you'd like. Quite a few of us are active on MFP as well.

Unjury makes a chicken stock flavored protein. You can also use unflavored proteins. They are not flavorless, but do not have added flavor, and IMO aren't nearly as sweet. You could mix it with any non-sweet drink you like. You can also take something like protein nectar and make it not sweet. My dad (he has a lapband) mixes Syntrax roadside lemonade with iced tea to make a protein drink similar to an Arnold Palmer.

It's a very scary procedure. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. On top of the natural risks, you seem to carry quite a bit of anxiety (I remem,ber you were posting about blood clots yesterday), which is probably going to exacerbate things a bit. Here's an old post of mine on the "real story" behind complication reporting & rates. It's a long post, but it has a lot if information. HTH

There's a trend where I live to charge patrons for splitting an entree. It's popping up in more and more places. How it works: let's say DH orders a $30 entree and it comes with 2 sides. I split the entree with him, and there's an $8 charge. DH receives his standard entree and his 2 sides, on his entree plate. I get an empty plate. Our bill is $38. It's ridiculous. I could order a side of something for about $4, and eat off his plate as much as I wanted. But if we say, "We're going to share..." there's a fee for that. And most of the time it's a significant fee. $8 for a clean plate to eat off of is ridiculous.

I'm a band revision and weightloss is definitely slower for me than with the band. Most of my weightloss was in the first week post-op. Since then I've lost around 25 lbs ("since then" = 11 weeks). Now I know 25 lbs in 11 weeks is about the national average for what a "dieter" can expect to lose, yada yada. But I'm eating way fewer calories, exercising more, and have a much higher BMI than your average dieter. I'm potentially (we'll see what happens in the next handful of days) coming off of a stall that kicked in my 3rd week post-op and lasted this entire time.

Something like that, yes. I'm not sure exactly what, but for a few weeks I could very clearly feel it when my stomach would contract. I would get a fairly sharp pain, but it would only last for a moment. And I would feel it about every 20 seconds like clockwork until whatever in it had moved through. Water hurt the worst, for whatever reason. I gave up on water for a while and just stuck to ice chips. Those were easy-peasy.

A thin liquid like water should clear your stomach in a matter of sedconds, up to maybe a minute. Most often about 20 seconds will be the max. An average stomach contracts about every 20 seconds. Water should funnel through for the most part, but you may need a contraction or few to fully clear a large volume.

Alsoto OP, I think I caught one of your responses as the above was posting. Re hairloss: if it happens, it will happen regardless of procedure. And it's probably going to happen. NSAIDS are not "recommended" for either the sleeve nor RNY (nor the band, but that's not a topic in your question). There's probably about equal risk to people taking them with either procedure. It really boils down to the likelihood of ulcer (ulceration in my reasoning is at greatest risk with the band), and the small amount of tissue left/difficulty in making a repair. If NSAIDS are needed, there are protective measures that can be taken for both procedures.

I'm not reading through all the responses so these may or may not be duplicates. Sleeve pros: Can be "easily" revised if needed Reduction of ghrelin (note: the stomach is NOT the only place that produces ghrelin). Limited likely hood of "stretching" Reduced risk of dumping (it is still possible to dump with the sleeve... actually it's possible to dump with a fully intact GI system) Intact pyloric valve Limited long-term regain Recuded chance of malnutrition Sleeve cons: Risk of food intolerances Chance of increased heartburn/reflux (can lead to other complications such as Barret's esophagus) No dismembered stomach left behind <- this creeps me out Not malabsorptive - you are still responsible for what you eat. If it goes down your throat and doesn't come back up, you will metabolize it. As a revisional procedure, greater risk of leak Weightloss is slower, on average RNY pros: Reduced responsibility for what you eat, better for "free pass" weightloss Dumping can be a great behavioral modification tool for long-term dietary changes Long history, still the "gold standard" of WLS Most frequently approved procedure (no longer experimental) Weightloss tends to happen faster (good for people with urgent health risks) RNY cons: Pouch seems to stretch considerably Unimpressive long-term regain stats Weird poop (happens with DS too) For me the raw pros & cons were about even. It was a matter of what mated best with the lifestyle I wanted, and the degree of responsibility/ownership I wanted for my diet. I did not really consider RNY. Had the sleeve not been an option for me, I would have most likely gone with a DS. I truly see RNY as a last resort, but there are people who are at the stage of last resort and I think it's a great tool for them. See what I mean? It just depends on what's a good fot for where you are.

^ Really good point! One of the things I regretted with my lapband was that I had ever tried white carbs. For months & months I was afraid of them, and for months & months I lost weight like no one's business. Let' just say that once I tried them & discovered they didn't make me sick (like I had thought they would), it became a lot easier to eat them. I had to go through a fairly rigorous "back to basics" track to get away from them again, and it was not easy. You can't un-go there.

None so far. My NUT suggested that twice a week I try eating about 100 empty calories (a bit of a desperation move). So I tried some cheese curls and was full on about 6 of them. I've tried chips, too - the baked Lay's that look like Pringles. I can eat about 6 of those as well. I've not tried popcorn, not a big popcorn fan. If I have a slider, it's fresh strawberries. I still can't eat very many, but volume-wise I can eat those the most. Then again, they essentially crush down to water.

You don't take blood thinners. The pre-op team does it. Usually it's Heparin (injection), sometimes Lovenox. Self-administered anticoagulants like aspirin, Coumadin, Warfarin, etc. will virtually always be stopped. I've had 4 surgerues in recent years and I've been given Heparin shots before each of them. Kind of depends on surgeon/hospital, but it's fairly common procedure. I'm not at special risk for DVT or SVT and if anything tend to be a "bleeder."

I was not always obese. And even after I became obese, I was not continuously obese until several years later. I never thought I would be the huge disgusting slob, but ends up I was. Do I think I'll be fat forever? Honestly, at this point, yes. Maybe not obese, but fat. I hope I am not, and am doing everything I can not to be, but I'm a "history writes the future" kind of girl and EVERY weightloss effort in the past has failed long term results, even previous WLS... so let's call me a hopeful skeptic.

In your therapy, have you ever focused on the reward of being fat? (I understand that might be a private question, so please consider it rhetorical). Most of us who are fat enough to really need WLS get something out of being fat. People hate it when I say that because they misinterpret it as "You want to be fat" but it's not a conscious want so much as a subconcious need. If we had no reason to be fat, we wouldn't be fat. What we're getting out of being fat is still ranking higher in our consciousness than what we get out of being thin, or this wouldn't be the truggle that it is. What most fat people get out of being fat is control. And a really common trigger to a reversion of behavior is something that makes you feel out of control.

No worries at all, the experience is completely different for everyone. I'm just highlighting the uniqueness that someone pre-op may not yet be expecting (like "always hungry" vs. "never hungry"). And like vomiting! I actually expected to me sick all the time, horrid heartburn, etc. Haven't been sick once, and only moderate heartburn when I forget my PPI. You just never know.

Keep on them. I hit a spell like that with my surgeon's office, waiting on a revision approval. My band came out in September and come the week after Thanksgiving they still hadn't even submitted my revision papers to insurance. My phone calls to the coordinator were not being returned, nor were my phone calls to her supervisor, and his supervisor. I was really starting to take it personally. So I just drove to the office and sit int he waiting room until she had time to help me. I called her every am and every pm after that, and once submitted I called insurance at least 1x per day to make damn sure the fax had actually been sent.

This is a good like at how individual each person's experience is. Some people have no problem with the pre-op diet, and some really struggle. Some make it, some don't. If your liver is not sufficiently shrunk, surgery may be cancelled or converted to an open procedure. Some surgeons have no pre-op diet, some have minor, some are weeks & weeks. I think the previous posters meant well - "if you can't follow the rules for two weeks how will you follow the rules forever?" and it's a good question in a metacognitive kind of way, but it really is comparing apples to oranges. That absence of a fundus, presence of scar tissue, incessant full sensation, etc. really change the game. Well, I'm committed and following the rules, and am NOT losing weight rapidly. So maybe it's a combination of rules and committment, or maybe it's luck, or metabolism, or who knows. The beauty of a procedure like this is that it is not a one size fits all solution.

Sounds to me like residual effects from the CO2 pumping, not stomach gas. If that's the case, Gas-X is a waste of time. Heating pad, movement, and perhaps laying on your left side w/ your knee pulled as close to your chest as you can get it.

You will probably be a given a blood thinner as part of your pre-op preparation at the hospital. Many surgeons also require a blood thinner Rx such as Arixtra for after you go home. You'll probably also be dressed (pre-op prep) in compression leggings, and be put into these little velcro boots that alternate air pressure on your feet. All of that does quite a bit to keep blood clots away. They happen sometimes, but it is fairly rare. All of the above should be sufficient in terms of actually thinning your blood. You do not want any homepathic products ON TOP of that. Plus your pre-op instructions should ban all non-approved supplements about 2 weeks before surgery. This is to help make sure that you don't take anything contraindicative to anything else you'll be given.