MacMadame

Some seminar I went to, the surgeon said that in most treatments, surgery comes first and drug treatments come later. Now that we know more about the hormones involved in obesity, I think a non-surgical treatment is actually possible. But it's going to take a while.

I know the ending even though I haven't seen the movie. :001_tt2:

I've been looking into that! I can't decide whether to get the version that has the info on the web site or right there on the bracelet. (Well, it's more like a strap. Definitely not a fashion statement.) I'm thinking that the first responders aren't going to be able to get my info off the internet at the scene so maybe I should get the one with the info right there. It's for running and biking, in case I get hit by a car or have a bike crash, more so than for visiting the ER.

Tijuana was like that when I lived in SD. You'd pop down for the day, eat out, do some shopping and come home before dark. We'd take the trolley to the border then walk over. It was great. I wouldn't go there now though. It's a war zone in a way.

Knowing I can't eat a lot has really liberated me at social gatherings. I am not shoving food in my face as fast as I can as often as I can do I actually get to *talk* to people and concentrate on them. I thought I was before, but I clearly wasn't.

It's not about losing weight for me. I've lost weight in the past. But I could never keep it off. I couldn't keep it off because I was hungry all the time. With the sleeve, you are satisfied on very little food. So you can keep it off because regular eating doesn't feel like dieting.

Dr. Cirangle's office can be disorganized. I always get my appointments rescheduled because they mess up the calendar. But he's great! I think other surgeons do it as one procedure though. Some prefer it that way and some prefer for you to heal in between so it's going to vary.

Well, I am only 5'1". I was 110 in HS. I was 4'10 and 95 lb. when I started but I got up to 110 and 5' at the end. Or maybe I was already 5'1" by then. (It's so hard to remember.) I was 125 and 5'2" by the time I graduated from college. During all that time, I was SO convinced I was a big porker too. But I really didn't start packing on the pounds until I got out of college. Isn't it weird how we can't really see ourselves clearly until a lot of time has passed.

Heh. Some people swear by aloe vera juice for that as well. I just followed my doctor's orders.

That's where cross-training comes in. Do something else on the days off -- something low impact and/or that uses different muscles. Make sure you take at least 1 day off a week though!

Just a little update. I'm doing better, I think. I'm still losing but I want to lose a bit more to have a cushion. I'm eating about 1650 calories a day on average and I'm going to up that when I get to 110.

I'm not familiar with him, but I would ask any surgeon: 1) How many sleeves have you done? 2) What size boughie do you use? 3) What kind of EWL do your sleeve patients have? 4) What's your complication rate? This has been my experience... I can eat pretty much anything I want if I'm careful and stop when I get full. Any food will hurt if I eat too much or too fast but there is no food I can't eat if I really want to and am willing to take the time. The only exception is that I have developed mild lactose intolerance so I can't drink a lot of milk without getting a tummy ache (and sometimes diarrhea). Never had a band. But part of why I didn't get one was because some people seemed like a big slave to it. Lots of people have. I'm 51 so I better not be getting pregnant!! But there are people who have and they don't seem to have any particular problems. That's true for all the WLS types though. The main problem I've seen is that people gain some baby weight and then don't always get it off. Also, with the band, sometimes they don't get their sweet spot back. Puke away... um, if you want to. I hate to puke, personally. Only if you want to be. If you don't take your Vitamins or eat right, you can get in trouble, but it's really hard to do. We absorb every calorie we eat so there is little room for malnourishment. IME you can easily eat 1500-1700 calories a day with a sleeve and most of us don't need to eat that many, except in special circumstances (pregnant, athletic). Nope. I see my surgeon a lot (more than most from what I can tell) but the most I've seen him is every 2 months. Um..... <crickets> Okay, sometimes I want to eat something. Let's say dessert. I think I've saved room for it, but I haven't. There is *nothing* I can do to make room for it. Except wait it out. Some times that pisses me off. :thumbup: Yep. I work out with a personal trainer 1x a week and we do all sorts of core work. I also do some with other workouts I do. I lost 32 lb. pre-op just making lifestyle changes. It took me 7 months. At 7 months out post-op, I had lost 63 pounds. So almost twice as much in the same timeframe. That seems faster than what I've seen with the band. Having to wait 45 min. to start drinking again.

Some things you can do: 1) Start practicing chewing well and eating slowly 2) Start taking your Vitamins 3) Wean off caffeine (you shouldn't have caffeine immediately post-op for a number of reasons and you don't want to deal with a caffeine headache on top of everything else immediately post-op) 4) Wean off carbonated beverages 5) Buy samples of Protein powder for immediately post-op. Don't worry about finding one you like pre-op as most people's tastes change post-op, at least at first while in ketosis. Just stock up on the samples so you have lots to try. 6) Talk to your family about your expectations of them Some things your family can do: 1) You'll have weight lifting restrictions at first so they can help out by doing chores that require lifting. 2) Get an agreement about what they can and can't eat in the house and in front of you when you are on the liquid diet. Remind them that this time is not forever but it's probably going to be hard for you. 3) Ask them not to be your food police! (Unless that's okay with you, but it drives most people mad.) 4) Be prepared for mood swings and unhappiness on your part -- your hormones will be going nuts during this time and that effects different people in different ways. You may not be too bad or you may be a crying irrational mess. It's best to be prepared. :thumbup:

How would you get it onto your sleeve? :thumbup:

Max protein is GREAT! But my GNC doesn't carry it. :thumbup:

It's not "sleeve vs. band", it's "doctor vs. doctor". :thumbup: Some say to wait to start up the Vitamins and some say to start out with liquids and chewables. I was on liquid Centrum and TUMS right way. I then moved to chewable Centrum and then regular. But I stayed on the TUMS too long and I think that contributed to my kidney stone. I was only supposed to be on it for 3 weeks and I was on them for at least 7! Anyway, I can't imagine it would be bad to be on vitamins early out, but I also think nothing horrible is going to happen to you if you miss a few weeks of vitamins and it is one less thing to think of and less pills to deal with. You are supposed to stay with very little pills immediately pre-op though. So it would be better IMO to not take vitamins at all than to take big horse pills until you are on regular food. But that's just my opinion. I'm not a doctor or nurse or anything.

Me too! Who would have thought that you could chew jello!

You talk about that powder so much that I went out and bought some! :biggrin0:

Yes, that's my big complaint about it. I have a few forums I love there but they are slow moving. Any forum that has more posts than fit on one page in a day ends up being a major pain to keep up with.

The leak could have happened in the OR but not be big enough to find. Or it could be from improper healing. Or patient "non-compliance" (That's medical talk for you ate something you were told not to.) Or there could have been symptoms right away but they were overlooked. Those are all things that could happen and have happened to various people.

Do you think we can stop bashing on Patty for not doing what we *think* we would have done even though we don't know any of the people involved? I think everyone has made their point here MANY TIMES and repeating yourself over and over doesn't advance the conversation.

A friend of mine had something similar happen to her. People were saying she and her boyfriend were doing it in the office and other nonsense! She eventually found another job and they got married. Beth, thanks for answering my question. I think of EDs as things like binge eating and anorexia so I was kind of surprised to hear you say you were looking for a counselor who specialized in them. Just make sure you get one who understands WLS or they'll jump to all sorts of weird conclusions about stuff that is perfectly normal for us!

My surgeon's published leak stats in their pre-op materials are 0.7% over a six year period. However, they have haven't had a leak in over a year so those stats are old and the new stats are lower. (They've been doing the sleeve for about eight years now.) In this abstract of their published results for the first two years, they had 216 patients and 3 had leaks for a rate of 1.38%. Vertical gastrectomy for morbid obesity in 216 pat...[surg Endosc. 2007] - PubMed Result This presentation of 5 year results includes their leak stats for the first 5 years: http://www.ssat.com/video/2008/SSAT%2049th%20Annual%20Meeting(3)-Cirangle.htm It's under 1%. These results will be published in a peer reviewed journal soon, probably in the Fall.

It's all relative. I don't do nearly as much as a lot of other triathletes training for my distances. Which worries me a bit but there are only so many hours in a day!

Conquering my nemesis hill!