MacMadame

Eh, it's a little of both. The thing is, it takes a while to get good at sleeves. That TJ doc is very inexperienced, for example. But even surgeons with good technique find their patients have regain issues if the boughie gets big enough. Btw, I promised to ask my doc last night whether he was planning to switch to a 36f and he said NEVER! (Just like that. Made me laugh because it's so him.) So that patient must have misunderstood. Personally, I can't see there being a big difference between a 32 and a 34 (including getting to 34 by oversewing) and if one surgeon finds he gets better results with one than the other, well, we pick our surgeons for their results, right? I'm not going to question 2f if the results are there. OTOH, there are clearly surgeons who are *afraid* to use a small enough boughie. (You can tell this by their reasons for why they use bigger.) It takes skill to get down in the 30s because you are working on a very small stomach with a very long staple line and not all surgeons have the skill or the confidence. Personally, I would never go to a surgeon who used a 40 f or higher and, from what I've seen, they aren't getting the results that the surgeons who use 32-36 f are getting.

I liked the Isopure clear protein drinks in the early days. Eventually I couldn't stand them but they saved my life in the first month or so.

My daughter (who is also 10) went through a lot of that. I told her I was having surgery so I could live long enough to see her grow up and have kids of her own and that seemed to help.

Biked 20.88 miles in 90 minutes. I'm definitely getting faster!

I don't like Shot Blocks because it's like eating salty licorice. :smile: The rule of thumb is to consume 200 calories an hour when doing endurance sports. I find that hard to do with just drinks, but I can't eat anything and run and I find the gels do nothing for me anyway. It's like they go right through me. What works best for me is a sports drink with a 3:1 carb to Protein ratio (my body hates pure carbs), Protein Bars and bananas. As for weight gain, are you tracking all your food and exercise? I track everything and so I can always go back when I get an unexpected number on the scale and analyze what happened. Without that information, you are just shooting in the dark and relying on (notoriously unreliable) memory.

I was up early because I couldn't sleep but I did manage to go back to sleep later.

The Daily Plate way over-estimated the amount of calories I can eat. OTOH, I now use My Fitness Pal and it seems okay, but it says I should be losing about 1 lb. a week and I've been losing two. So it's going the other way, I think. I do think the calculators get more accurate the closer you are to goal. Also, for exercise, many people find when they are a beginner runner that the online calculators under-estimate their calorie burned but tend over-estimate calories burned from other exercise. My HRM monitor says I burn more running and less biking in the gym than the online calculators. But the swimming and biking outside are close. IOW, I find I can't rely on one source because each one is skewed in a different way!

This is not true. There are patient-led support groups that aren't affiliated with any doctor and there are surgeons who will see patients from Mexico. Now, it is very important, if you have a band, to line up your aftercare before you go. You don't want to get a band and then find that no one in your area will do your fills. But there are plenty of people who go to Mexico for bands and do their follow-up locally to them. For the sleeve, your PCP can do your follow-up.

Well I went through labor for 40 hours with my second before I had my c-section. So I guess I got the worst of both worlds.

You'll get different answers. The big healing comes in the first 2 weeks and that's why most programs have you on liquids of some sort for at least two weeks. But after that, it varies and you'll get answers that range from one month to three. My answer is 6 weeks.

The online calculators don't work for me. They over-estimate the calories I burn. I had my RMR tested too and found out mine was 8% lower than average for my gender, height, weight and age. Of course, that was 40 pounds ago. When you are losing weight, your metabolism can be all over the place. I plan to get tested again when my weight stabilizes.

I have read that but I have a link to a study where they actually measured and said there was almost no reduction in ghrelin. I know a lot of people with bypass who are over a year out and I see that they have more issues with hunger than those who have a sleeve do at the same point. I think it's because the stoma gets bigger over time, but it could be the ghrelin. It also seems like some DSers have more hunger than those with sleeves. With the bigger sleeves, sometimes not all of the fundus gets transected so there is some left there producing ghrelin.

I'm so impressed you've done a HIM. I'm going to do one in the Fall and I'm a bit scared about it. I'm also impressed with your time ... I know people who run the 1/2 mary who take longer!

Ran on Sunday for a short time. It was too hot for more. Ran on Monday at the gym. Ran today at track. Too much running! Tomorrow I'm taking off and then Thurs. is my bike day. Haven't decided what I'll do on Friday.

I run 3 days a week so I have 1 or 2 days rest between. Well, so far I've run 4 days in a row this week but that's unusual. And I don't like it. You can do other things on your rest day though. I swim and bike on mine and take 1 or 2 days off for total rest.

It may technically still be your abdomen wall but it's down by your pubic area below your bikini line. It will not impact you if you have WLS or stomach cancer or anything else. I know this because my bariatric surgeon said so as I've had two c-sections and, now, a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. The c-sections did not impact the sleeve in any way. My prior gallbladder surgery, OTOH...

I was visiting my mom. We did go to the fitness center at the hotel but mostly we went shopping. :laugh: I got this awesome faux leather jacket and a very pretty and slightly sexy dress at Nordstrom's Rack.

Once your staple line heals, you have a normal stomach that is as strong as an unaltered stomach. So vomiting isn't any more dangerous than it was before.

Exactly. They really aren't worth it; there are better ways to ramp up your activity. I know people who are into hard-core exercising, train people a living, etc. and none of them use weights when they run or advise their clients to do so. It's just too easy to injury yourself for very little extra benefit. Basal Metabolic Rate. (Sometimes people say "Basic" instead of "Basal"). It's the number of calories you burn to keep your body alive... so what you'd burn if you did nothing all day but lay around in bed. Your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) is what you'd burn if you did nothing but sit all day. It's easier to measure and it's very close to BMR so some site and some trainers use it instead.

I'm pretty much at goal but don't eat a lot and am still losing. I need to make the transition from losing to maintenance pretty soon as my top half is getting kind of scrawny (Though my bottom half still has about 5 lb. of fat to lose.)

Order up lots of samples, but not worry about trying them until after surgery. You can get samples for anywhere from free to $4 a sample from: ChikeNutrition.com Syntrax nectar (don't know their web site)

IMO the sleeve has the best hunger control. Band hunger control depends on getting to the sweet spot. Not everyone does. RnY patients still have the part of the stomach that produces ghrelin and start to feel hungrier soon post-op and stronger on average.

They make you pay for a lost badge?! That sucks. Btw, I was away from my computer for most of Sunday and Monday. Anyone miss me? :crying:

Congratulations!

Me either. Plus you can set the scene so to speak. I start out by telling it from my POV -- I had surgery to remove the part of my stomach make ghrelin so now I don't have a ravenous appetite. I've lost weight before, but I could never keep it off because I was hungry all the time. Then I follow up with something like "It's awesome!" or "It's the best thing I've ever done." People would have to be horribly rude and pretty ballsy to follow that up with "it's the easy way out" and they don't. In fact, I've managed to make thin people who work pretty hard to stay thin jealous they can't get this surgery! :rolleyes2: