Creekimp13

Also, this can happen anywhere...I'm not blaming Mexico....but it's a good warning for folks to remember that they really need to line up post surgical support at home. If you feel like something might be wrong, don't wait. Get treatment promptly. https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/bariatric-surgery-in-mexico-turns-deadly-for-phoenix-woman

Glad you had an excellent experience, and indeed there are some wonderful hospitals in Mexico. Make sure you have support lined up at home. You will still need follow up, metabolic tests for nutrient deficiencies, etc. Most of this stuff can be handled by a primary care physician, but you'll have to be proactive in making sure it gets done. Best wishes and congrats!

No advice to add....just wanted to say I'm sorry this happened to you. It's a risk we all take and it stinks you drew the GERD card.

Being low on D isn't going to make you sick, weak, dizzy, nauseated, or have muscle cramps and pain. Something else is going on and should be investigated...probably with your primary care doctor. Best wishes.

10,000 is a pretty big dose. Did your doctor prescribe that much? Be a little careful and monitor your level. D is fat soluable and excess can't be flushed out like water soluable vitamins....having too high a level can cause some calcium problems that can hurt your kidneys...so it's important not to go overboard. As long as your doctor is monitoring your level and has prescibed that dose you should be fine...they might be trying to get your level up in a hurry before surgery. You probably will need it adjusted down when your levels come up.

Low D is VERY common, particularly for folks in the Northern States. Do some naked sunbathing and take your D3.

The first month or so was low energy, but by the time I was up to 1200 calories a day...I felt amazing. Tons of energy. I have more energy today at 49 than I did at 30. Very honestly. I feel so much better and so much more able to get things done:)

When you pick a doctor, definately ask about their experiences with patients having acid issues after sleeve. How often does it happen to their patients? What treatments do they pursue? How many of them need surgical revision? Some doctors will have a better handle on this than others. Also ask...how have you modified your technique to avoid acid issues with sleeve? Do you have fewer patients with post surgical acid issues now? Have you done any recent continuing education on patients who experience acid with sleeve? Go to someone who is part of the conversation for the newest ideas in surgery. It's not a guarantee you won't have problems, but it increases your odds for success.

I had acid, but learned during my pre-surgical endoscope that it was due to a HUGE hiatal hernia. Doc fixed the hernia when we did my sleeve and I have had no acid since (three and a half years)

What would you think of seeing a bariatric therapist? Sounds like the first time you didn't get your disordered eating issues resolved.....but maybe you can this time around with some help? Wishing you the best.

UCLA is excellent. Having surgery will not solve a lifelong issue with obesity. It won't fix your relationship with food, and every single surgery can fail and you can eat yourself fat again if you don't address your past relationship with food and make the needed changes. Cutting out your stomach doesn't fix your brain. But it really can help you to work on your behavior, your choices and your future eating habits. Expect to work harder than you ever have, and use a clinic that works closely with therapists who can help you along in the process. Beware clinics that make it sound like a quick fix. It isn't.

Yes, it's possible. While it is much more common to lose only about half of your excess weight, and struggle with regain...there ARE people who swap one version of disordered eating for another and ultimately struggle with full blown anorexia and bulemia. Inpatient eating disorder treatment centers are reporting increasing numbers of post bariatric surgery patients. It is not that bariatric surgery causes an eating disorder...the eating disorder is usually pre-existing. But it can cause the eating disorder to take a different form...almost like cross over addiction (which is also a significant problem for many post bariatric surgery patients.) People do die after bariatric surgery due to eating disorder related malnutrition. It happens. That said! Bariatric surgery is overwhelmingly coorelated to increased lifespans. Fatal eating disorders are rare. In short....worth paying attention to, but few deal with it...and overall, Bariatric surgery has far more benefits than risks.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/publications/psychiatry_newsletter/hopkins_brainwise___winter_2015/bariatric_surgery_and_eating_disorders http://c-hit.org/2014/10/15/years-after-weight-loss-surgery-patients-seek-treatment-for-eating-disorders/ https://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitness/bariatric-surgery-eating-disorders-lap-band-made-bulimic/story?id=13802938

A lot of it is keeping track and making adjustments. First, figure out how many calories a person of your weight, gender and activity level burns in a day. A nutritionist can help you. (there are a lot of Basal metabolic rate calculators online that might help, too) Then, try to eat that many calories, and see what happens to your weight. If you lose, go up....if you gain, go down. If you adjust by 200 or so calories each adjustment....eventually you'll find the sweet spot. For me, it's about 1400-1600 calories and 10,000 steps a day....and the occasional trip to the bariatric therapist if I find myself self sabotaging and falling back into bad habits due to emotional triggers. Don't get addicted to starving yourself....it's just another version of an eating disorder. Eat a healthy, nutritious, balanced diet. Best wishes!

Every clinic has a different way of measuring what "counts" and when they will push the paperwork. Best to call and ask.

Lot of pharmacies will have those blood pressure stations you can use for free that have scales built in. YMCA will have good scales and likely wouldn't charge you to just weigh yourself....or about any doctor's office (though with Covid they might be picky if you're not a client)

Make sure you're drinking enough water. Biggest cause of muscle spasm is dehydration.

It isn't weird at all, and yes, you can have a heart attack when your potassium gets badly out of whack. 3.5 is borderline...it's just under normal. 3.0 is bad (particularly combined with indicators of extreme dehydration and poor kidney function). Moral of the story: Drink your fluids. Sip, Sip, Sip. All day. Everyday. When you are at more risk for dehydration, you have to extra careful with overheating in ways you weren't before. I remember being able to chug almost a quart of water when I got overheated before surgery. These days, over three years out, I can barely "chug" 6 ounces. Learning to drink water all the freaking time when it's hot...is essential. Eating your bananas and salty stuff is a good idea, too.

My approach to exercise has two elements. First, I do track my steps. I'm a hard data person, and I like something simple that I can quantify. When I started out I was getting 5000 steps a day. I gradually increased 200 steps a week and worked up to 10,000 steps a day. I picked that number because my doctor said it was a good goal. Research varies on what is best, but most will put the optimal number between 8,500 and 12,000 steps a day for good cardiac health and avoiding a sedentary lifestyle. Lot of research out there about how awful sitting for most of the day is for you. In maintenance, I do 10,000 steps a day. When i'm actively trying to lose (went up a couple pounds and want to correct) I'll increase to 12-14,000 a day. I have had a few days in the 20,000s and a couple in the 30's.....but most often I'm somewhere between 10 and 14...and for me, this feels perfect. The other element of my approach to exercise...is to do active things that I LOVE. I never do exercise I hate, or that bores me. I garden, ride my bike, swim, run my dog, hike with friends....stuff that makes me smile and feel good. I also mow my lawn. With a push mower. How many people pay for a gym membership, and go home and ride a riding lawn mower! Seems crazy to me. Lawn mowing is an awesome work out...upper and lower body, core...good stuff...and you get to look behind you and see how much you've done. Finishing the work kinda pushes you to commit....and at the end your yard looks terrific. I know this sounds psycho, but I kinda love to mow my lawn. This level of exercise supports a 1600 calorie a day diet. I like having this many calories, and I like keeping my heart healthy. I also like the muscle definition in my arms and legs. Hubby says I have Wonder Woman legs. LOL.

There is no easy way out of significant obesity.

You are not alone. The real work begins after the honeymoon is over and you face your permenant future of new eating habits. How do I stay on the straight and narrow? Two things....a genuine commitment to staying healthy and active, and help from my bariatric therapist to understand why I had a lifelong history of self sabotage where food was concerned....so I can hopefully freaking avoid it! It's not easy. I have a 40 year history of food addiction. I have never had an emotion I couldn't eat. Chopping out your stomach doesn't fix your head. I talk about going to therapy a lot...in reality, these days I see the therapist maybe twice a year. But in the second year following surgery I really struggled with how to make healthy eating habits my norm...and how to stop obsessively living my life around my diet. All roads lead back to food....either obsessively wanting it, or obsessively denying it. Obsessive weighing, exercising, research, etc. God, it was exhausting. I needed to learn new strategies and reframe my accomplishments/struggles/needs/emotions....in other ways. My second year after surgery, I think I would have backslid and self sabotaged again if not for my bariatric therapist. Give as much attention to your past relationship with food....as you do the needs of your new stomach. To move forward, heal the past.

Have you tried a bariatric therapist? Getting to the root of my disordered eating habits was critical for me to reach goal and maintain. Are you tracking every crumb you eat? I know that sounds critical, but it isn't meant to be....I genuinely thought I was eating a LOT less than I was until I started measuring and tracking absolutely every calorie that went into my body. Yes, it's a hellish pain in the ass. And sadly, it's necessary. You have lost 215 pounds. That is a HUGE accomplishment! I'm crazy proud of you and you should be, too. Sometimes when your body loses a metric feck ton of weight in a short period of time....a starvation defense mechanism kicks in and it plateaus for a while. Be patient and stick to good lifelong habits, a good balanced diet. If you're tracking, measuring and mindfully watching what and why you eat....you'll get there. Hang in there!

I think Dr. Jason Fung is a quack, and so does my bariatric surgeon. Edit: Didn't mean this to sound so rude, but it's my heartfelt opinion. My doctor has met him, wasn't impressed.

Excellent progress!

Yes. This surgery will help you control disordered eating....but it won't fix why you have disordered eating. Cutting out your stomach doesn't fix your head, and yes, lots and lots of people never come anywhere near goal and lots of people will regain the weight. Not what anyone wants to hear...but it's the truth. Here's my version of "wisdom"... (lol) 1. Avoid extremes like the plague. Work on reaching a normal sustainable amount of calories eating healthy well-balanced foods. Crash diets and extremes don't work longterm. You probably already know this. Don't forget. 2. Losing weight at a breakneck pace is exciting and giddy....but can be crappy for your health and your longterm metabolism. You didn't gain it all in a year, you likely won't lose it all in a year. Work harder on making small meaningful permenant changes you can live with forever....than embracing extremes that will eventually burn you out. It's very easy to feel like post surgical extreme dieting is the new norm. Eventually, it catches up with you. The goal should always be a nutritious balanced diet with adequate (but not excessive) calories. 3. Find and see a bariatric therapist. Particulary, after surgery. Your disordered-eating brain still needs to be retrained. It has triggers you can identify and work through that will increase your success long term. Give your eating behavior history the care and consideration you give your new stomach. If depression and anxiety contribute to your disordered eating...address them. (This one is so important) And these are just my personal ones... 4. Wear a fitness tracker. You don't have to go to the gym to increase your exercise, but you do need to be aware of how much you move and how many calories you're burning. My exercise is just walking more. It has made a HUGE difference in my health, endurance, fitness. Even if you're someone who has limitied mobility, or who "hates exercise"...you can give your metabolism a terrific boost just by adding a couple hundred steps a week. 5. Invest time in supportive people. Avoid unsupportive people. At least until you've got a good handle on how to manage your eating behavior and triggers.