Hop_Scotch

Hello and welcome. I had VSG in March 2020 in NSW, best thing I ever did for myself and my only regret is that I didn't do it much sooner. The month will fly by, hope it all goes well for you.

Hopefully the links below will help some people differentiate between physical and head hunger. I don't know about anyone else but in the early stages of post op, it was difficult to know when I was genuinely hungry as none of the usual clues were there. Only way I knew if I had gone too long between eating was due to hand tremors. I am nearly a year out and still do not get any physical hunger cues as yet, but I do get head hunger cues, and its like they say in the links below, those head hunger cues are for chips, lollies, icecreams. I do lots of distracting myself: reading, going for a walk, going to the gym, chatting with a friend, play games, do puzzles. The longer I distract myself and don't give in to head hunger cues, the less frequent they are. If I give in (which occasionally I do), those head hunger cues come back in full force...until once again I get into distraction mode. I am getting better at ignoring the cues which for me works best, as I am an all or nothing person. I don't moderate well at all, just having a little bit doesn't ever work for me, one little bit mostly leads to all of it. https://www.stlukesonline.org/health-services/health-information/health-topics/head-hunger-after-weight-loss-surgery#:~:text=Head hunger is about eating,are “above the neck.” https://primesurgicare.com/head-hunger-vs-belly-hunger-difference/ https://www.streamline-surgical.com/2017/02/dealing-head-hunger-bariatric-surgery/

I live alone and undertook surgery by myself. I didn't need any help at all at home, and in fact, was happy not to have anyone around me fussing.

Well done on the weigh loss so far. You weigh about 200lb (assuming as you mention 50lb but the profile on left shows something different), at your height 200lb if far from looking sickly. Your friends aren't supportive at all, maybe time to take a break from them and look at developing supportive friendships with other people. I don't know how you get through this, hopefully there will be plenty of suggestions, but one thing I would suggest is some counselling for you so as to help you deal with your feelings around this, and hopefully some suggestions on how to deal with non-supportive friends and family members.

There is a lot of really unhealthy fat that sits around our organs, its not visable but it plays havoc with our health and wellbeing. I imagine if you had a DEXA scan before surgery and now, you would see a significant reduction in that unhealthy fat. It won't be long before the visable fat reduction is going to be noticable!

Flavoured may have added sugar? Look at the nutritional panels and compare with plain oatmeal.

Some people have had good weight loss, others not. In general the average weight loss with ESG is lower than the surgical options because the stomach reduction is not as great as the surgical options. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/endoscopic-sleeve-gastroplasty/about/pac-20393958#:~:text=When combined with lifestyle modification,at 12 to 24 months.

The sutures may have loosened, come undone totally or perhaps incorrectly placed so there wasn't sufficient reduction in stomach volume. I had an ESG, an endoscopy showed that most of my sutures had loosened or come undone totally. I converted to VSG March 2020

Wow the proverbial who needs enemies with a friend like that rings true here. You don't need that toxicity in your life.

Hello and welcome. Sounds like some counselling may be in order for you to help you with your decision. For me personally I am quite happy with the surgery choice I finally ended up making but then food of itself wasn't a passion to me. I am nearly a year out and so far I have no regrets whatsoever.

Welcome and thank you for sharing. Great that you and your wife are going through this together, to be able to support each other.

Not necessarily weird. Dry eyes can be caused by my things, you may have changed medications or supplements since surgery, eating different foods, added different supplements such as fish oil capsules (which are suggested for dry eyes), you may not be sitting in front of a blowing fan, change in heating perhaps? A dry heat could cause dry eyes.

I do but I have an auto immune issue that causes it. Use a preservative-free eye drops at least three times a day and if they are worse overnight (gritty on waking) use a gel type eye drop.

https://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/431-the-guys’-room/

Are you on the pureed stage progressing to soft foods or doing a combination of both? How much longer on this or those phases? My only suggestion would be blended soups. protein shakes, broth - but I am a pretty boring eater. Your dietician have any suggestions for you that fit in with your guidelines.

I was in hospital for two nights and had IV fluids along with fluid panadol. Once I left hospital I didn't need any panadol, I did use two tablets the morning after I left hospital only because I was catching a plane. It was more a preventive move in case I got sore dragging my case around. I had very little actual pain, only discomfort around the incision sites. I guess everyone has different pain tolerances.

Is the belly button sore? I wonder if you have an infection in your belly button? Ask your doctor to take a swab in case there is an infection and you may need some antibiotics if a bacterial infection or something else if a fungal infection.

What surgery are you planning on having? I had a sleeve and I had no pain but some discomfort around the incision sites, this made it difficult to get in and out of bed and couldn't lie on my side for a little while. For me I took two weeks off work and I was happy with that. I had minimal or no gas after surgery, but then I did walk alot. I had two weeks of full liquids, two weeks of pureed foods, two weeks/three weeks of minced foods graduating to soft foods. Make sure you go back through the forums here, lots of useful information to be found.

If you are not already on some stomac acid reducers ask your doctor what you can use. I was able to use over the counter nexium.

That really depends on your personal circumstance eg gender, height, age, weight, activity levels. You could try myfitnesspal, set your profile to maintain, fill in all the details and it will give you a daily allowance. The daily allowance will likely seem a lot if you've still been eating fairly light recently, so you may want to increase your calories slowly until you find the maintenance sweet spot.

i assume with gold coverage that you'd be covered for weight loss surgery as along as you meet the criteria for the surgery to be also covered by medicare - which from memory is BMI 35 and greater with weight related comorbidities or a BMI 40 and over (without comorbidities). You will be given a medicare item number which you can then check with BUPA for coverage, also determine whichever private hospital you end up at is a hospital BUPA deals with for the best hospital coverage.

Dr David Joseph did my sleeve he also does bypass, his office is in Newtown and from memory works out of about three private hospitals in NSW. I only had one recommendation but after my initial consult I felt quite assured by him. He also does liver transplants and I figured anyone who has the patience and skill to do that is going to do a good job of my conversion from a ESG to a VSG, and he did. Minimal pain (there was some discomfort from the incisions), very little gas, etc. Not very communicative in the months following the surgery but his office does answer questions if I have any, and I know from various reviews that if I had any issues he responses well. I travelled interstate and his office could haven't been more helpful in ensuring appointments lined up (particularly the initial appointment with him and the dietician, as well as the extra endoscope I needed because of my ESG. Assuming you have private insurance? I think out of pocket for bypass was about $4000, may have gone up by now though. Here is his weight loss clinic https://www.bodyfree.com.au/

My surgeon never really gave me a goal, only spoke in terms of average weight loss rate for the surgery I had, I didn't really have a goal, I just wanted to healthy and that is achievable (for me) at a weight that is higher than 25 bmi. Years ago when I did WW, I came to the conclusion I didn't want to be fighting with my body everyday to achieve some magical number that was probably unachievable, that I would prefer to reach a goal that was more reasonable to manage without struggling and worrying everyday about every single calorie. I am happily in maintenance right now and managing really well, sure I could still lose more weight but at what cost? Do what works for you and is best for you physically and mentally, that may be at the lower end of the healthy weight range, it may be the higher range, it may be over the higher range, as long as it isn't a constant struggle to maintain all is good and you've found your sweet spot!

Best wishes for you!

Hope it all goes well for you! it will be over before you know it