Creekimp13

The reason you have to remove nail polish is because the anesthesiologist and OR nurses will want to see how your blood is perfusing your extremities. Sometimes they'll pinch your nail beds to make them go white and count the number of seconds it takes them to go pink again. This shows how well blood is reaching your fingers and toes. If you have sluggish capillary refill in your fingers and toes it can mean anything from you being too cold...to being a sign of internal bleeding.
It's a tool that gives them more information about your circulation:)

You know what I hate worse than d**k pix? Guys who can't communicate. If a brilliant conversationalist who makes me laugh wants to show me his parts...I might just want a peek. Yep, i'm bad.
But you've gotta pay to play that game. You need erotic writing skill. You need a mastery of language. You need the ability to completely capture my mind....before I want anything to do with your naughty bits.
And I don't just mean the ability to talk dirty. We need commonality, similar values, similar politics, similar creativity and twisted humor, compassion, intelligence, emotional intelligence.
Yep, I've got a LOT of tough criteria. But if the guy fits THAT bill? They can send me all the skin shots they want. But not one minute before.
If a boring guy sends me a shot of his junk, I use paint to make a weird cartoon out of it and send it back. Then, I delete them. That kinda stuff should never be a surprise.

The reason you have to remove nail polish is because the anesthesiologist and OR nurses will want to see how your blood is perfusing your extremities. Sometimes they'll pinch your nail beds to make them go white and count the number of seconds it takes them to go pink again. This shows how well blood is reaching your fingers and toes. If you have sluggish capillary refill in your fingers and toes it can mean anything from you being too cold...to being a sign of internal bleeding.
It's a tool that gives them more information about your circulation:)

Thank you very much!!

Just write about your day. Write about your motivators for weight loss surgery. Write about supportive people in your life who will help get you there. Keep it positive and don't give him any concerns.....unless you have some concerns you'd like to have addressed.

Ok everyone, surgery in the morning.....I’m excited and nervous! Will post in a couple of days!!

Tomorrow I start my two days of clear liquid then Wednesday surgery at 8am!!! good luck everyone this week

Little Green, I feel your pain. Sticking to my diet and changing my eating habits has been a mean angry beeyatch for me. LOL.
After a lot of years of losing and regaining 50 pounds (plus a little extra, why not?)...my bad back, climbing sugar numbers and a cancer scare (I don't have it, thank the gods) finally forced the issue. Somthin gotta be done...I ain't happy like this.
I just hit that...Ah crap, moment. Some people call it an Aha! moment. I think they're liars. LOL. For me, it was definitely Ah crap!
One thing I noticed at a bariatric group support meeting...is that people lie a lot.
The psychologist running the group asked, "What have you done this week to boost your activity?"
And people's responses were:
"I've done three hours of circuit training and cardio daily, when I'm not running marathons with disabled children and teaching the homeless to jog to keep warm"
"I built a home gym and have networked with friends to workout together every day after work with a healthy recipe exchange. I've also joined a rowing team and take salsa dancing lessons three times a week."
"I ran a triathalon, climbed Mt. Everest, and built new organizers into all my closets for the new clothes I can't wait to buy!"
....and I'm kinda lookin around at this group of 250-500 pound people thinking to myself... These people know the right answers. They've studied this. They are REALLY knowledgeable. (but are they seriously doing all this crap they say they're doing?)
Then the psychologist asked the room, "What BAD eating choices have you made this week?"
And I piped up, "One night I got really desperate and stupid, woke up at 3am, and slathered a piece of white bread with butter and put chocolate sprinkles on it and ate it in the bathroom."
People looked at me in horror and laughed nervously.
Psychologist, "Anyone else?"
Crickets.
Thanks guys. I'm the only freak here. Right. That's why most of the folks in this room have to buy two seats on the plane. LOL. (I didn't say that, of course)
So yeah...I get it....this stuff is hard. A lot of fat people are perfectionists. They don't like to talk about being imperfect. For some, it's really hard to admit when they've been human, caved into the addiction, and had to get back up again.
And I think that's the key....learning to get right back up after you did something stupid....and do the right thing again. Not hating yourself for it. Not beating yourself up. I'm not saying you shouldn't be accountable to yourself. Not saying that's a license to not improve. Just saying...accept that you're imperfect. It's ok. The best people aren't perfect.
It's ok to struggle every single day, and make the choice to keep working.
Now, to answer the question myself... I'm making some "good progress changing my eating habit" (I hope you read that in Dr. Nowzaradin's voice...cause that's how it was in my head) The fitbit has helped me A LOT.
Making substitutions for things I really love to eat and can actually tolerate...has helped, too. I'm a carb ***** (rhymes with war)....but I've switched my carbs to low glycemic carbs, and I'm mindful of eating more Protein. When I'm having a carb craving from hell....I have protein pancakes and can keep it at bay. I love my smoothie maker. Frozen banannas with cocoa and splenda and almond milk....saves me from most stupid impulses. When I "Need" pizza...I grab a California Kitchen four cheese pizza and dress it up with mushrooms, green peppers, onions and diced Canadian bacon. Half the pizza is about 470 calories. I have it with a big garden salad and life is good. I have learned to cook a lot of Thai and Chinese. I limit the rice to a quarter cup, and indulge in all those great flavors...garlic, ginger, coconut milk, curry, fish sauce, splenda brown sugar. Peanut Butter chicken veggie Soup is a staple at my house now. All my sandwiches are on pumpernickel. All my cheese is reduced fat swiss or part skim mozzarella...or cabot's 40% cheddar. Avacado toast with a poached egg, and chai seed pudding are staples in my diet. When I need my chicken nuggets, I make them with shake and bake.
One think I think dieters do...that hurts them long term....is eating foods they hate. I refuse to do that anymore. It's harder to find stuff that's legal that you love....but I think that's a big key. You need to be happy.
Exercise, which has always hated me....has become a lot of fun with my fitbit. Just upping your steps a hundred here and there feels like an accomplishment. You can start really slow, and you can walk absolutely anywhere. I've worn out the carpet in a loop around my house. LOL.
Be patient with yourself. You can do this. Sometimes it takes a little longer to "get there". And sometimes even after we've gotten there...we spectacularly screw up and have to get up and try again. Just keep getting up. Wishing you the very best.

Hi Jeannie, you should be able to get your EKG done in time. The only issue would be if it had irregularities that might require a stress test or more testing...,, that could get problematic. Get on that first thing in the morning! My EKG was done at my regular doctor's office.
I would suggest calling your bariatric group and letting them know you still need your EKG and seeing if they can call whatever test facility will get you in ASAP. Going through regular scheduling yourself might not get the results that a call from a doctor's office would.
The endoscopy would come into play only if you flunked your upper GI barium X-ray (at my clinic, anway). If you had normal results from your upper GI (if you had to do one)...you likely won't need an endoscopy.

I don't have to take any elimination product. No clean out procedure.
My office does two weeks of liquid diet and on the last night before surgery, you carb load with about 30 ounces of white grape juice. I have a feeling the grape juice makes things move if they need to. LOL:)

This is a long post, but it details my gastric sleeve experience in Mexico, and I feel like it's important to share it. I'm sure there are great results from this clinic and others in Mexico, but here are some of the pitfalls:
I had a sleeve gastrectomy in April in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with Dr. Juan Francisco Hidalgo (Weight Loss Team), and I have had extreme complications since then. I had to undergo a revision surgery to a full gastric bypass because the multiple strictures in my stomach were so bad that surgeons at the mayo Clinic (arguably one of the best groups of bariatric surgeons in the world), after five procedures, couldn't fix them. They say it was most likely Dr. Hidalgo's technique that created the stricture - he uses a much smaller bougie (tube to shape the stomach) than is typically used in the United States, and it is more likely to create complications. I know loads of people have a good outcome from Mexico surgeries, but I share my experience because I owe it to anyone contemplating this.
I did a lot of research before going there and thought I had chosen well. The website of Dr. Hidalgo is very sophisticated, and there are no language issues when asking questions in advance because of the English-speaking administrator, Gerald. The website gives reams of information in perfect English -- all very comforting. Plus, as I was considering the surgery, they offered me access to the support group on Facebook for patients of Dr. Hidalgo -- something that seemed so authentic and convincing since I could read posts from all kinds of real people. However, after they recently found out about my complications, Gerald, the administrator, removed me from the group even though I was not all over it bashing Hidalgo but had just posted a couple of times about my situation. I suddenly felt so duped -- I believed all the great testimonials and was too gullible to understand that only people with positive outcomes were allowed to be in that community.
So since I can't share it with people allowed to join that private group, I feel it is my responsibility to share my experience here:
My experience in the Puerto Vallarta hospital was very hairy - I woke up after surgery in some kind of lounge with no one around me and in extreme pain - sobbing and begging for help, and after that at one point my blood pressure was so dangerously low that they wouldn't let me lay down anymore - forcing me into a sitting position, and I think it was possibly because the nurses gave me pain medicine twice at one point. Dr. Hidalgo was summoned to the room, and actually suggested perhaps my condition was because I hadn't taken my Wellbutrin for a couple of days. Um, what? I sincerely thought for a little while that I might die.
Promises that the medical staff would check in on me at my hotel regularly after discharge from the hospital didn't materialize, and a bellboy had to track down Dr. Hidalgo to remove my staples because I was due to fly home.
And then when I required intervention a couple of weeks later because I couldn't eat or drink anything due to the stricture, I was told by Dr. Hidalgo that I just needed a shot of cortisone (Seriously? Where?), and when they sent my "surgery report" to share with the U.S. doctor, it was actually just a generic report with my name at the top - not my report. It didn't even include my actual surgical information because it talked about the port they had installed, which I never had. When I asked for full records, including the swallow study/leak test done with X-Ray at the hospital before discharge, I was told that Dr. Hidalgo didn't have any of the records, and that it could be three or four months before he got it from the hospital.
My diagnosis was that I had a severe stricture in my gastric sleeve in several places, and the five additional surgeries were to try to stretch and stent the stomach open, but nothing worked and I had to have a complete revision to a roux en Y gastric bypass because my stomach was unsavable. The Mayo surgeon's professional opinion based on my situation and the generic "surgery report" Hidalgo's team sent is that this stricture was caused by Dr. Hidalgo because he uses a bougie that is far too narrow. This is the tool used to size your new sleeve stomach, and Hidalgo uses size 18, while the medical standard in the U.S. is more like 28.
Though I asked several times, Dr. Hidalgo would never provide my actual medical records or X-Rays from after the surgery, but the Mayo doctors believe the X-Ray immediately following the surgery shows the stricture, which left just a 1/4 inch opening and was slowly killing me. I didn't eat a solid piece of food for 140 days, I was anemic and malnourished and needing Fluid IVs just to stay hydrated because I couldn't even force enough Water down the narrow stricture. Half of my hair has fallen out, I was confused and exhausted for months due to malnutrition, and I could hardly function. I lost 75 pounds in four months, but I only had 100 pounds total to lose so that was a dangerous pace for someone my size . Yes, I lost weight, but this was not a safe way to do it and I was desperately sick the whole time. Besides, my procedures to fix my $4,200 gastric sleeve from Mexico cost more than $125,000 - thank GOD I have good health insurance because just the co-pays alone have caused me significant hardship.
I'm sorry to share such a terrible story. I understand how hopeful it feels to finally have the opportunity to lose weight because I was desperate to do so. But I made bad choices, it seems, based on a fake Facebook "support group," and English-speaking staff, and a charming doctor. My advice is to choose slowly and well and to comb forums looking for posts from people who may not have had the best experiences with the clinic you choose. I have a network now of a couple of other people with an experience similar to mine from surgeries with Hidalgo's Weight Loss Team, and none of us ever saw anything negative ahead of our visits. People with complications need to share them for the benefit of people in the future.
I would also recommend that you ask a surgeon for the technical aspects of their procedure and then compare them to the vast volumes of research available from doctors who practice in the U.S. The bougie size is a big deal, and so are the exact kind of staples used. And above all else, DO NOT leave Mexico without a copy of every medical record generated about your care, from the films of the leak test to hospital logs. Even in Spanish, they can be invaluable later to a team of doctors trying to help you if you have complications.
I have learned these things the hard way, and it's been a rough road. If I could do it over, I would still have the gastric sleeve, maybe, but I would have been much more cautious in the process. I wish you all the best.

I had no pre-op diet of any sort. He said he only makes people that are over 300lbs do that because of the size of their liver (well I was only 7lbs away from that weight so I don't know why he didn't make me do it). None the less all went great

Okay thank you!! I was having a panic moment there lol. I only had that bit but now I'm headed to get the sugar free.

I had a small hernia, about 4 cm’s and I also suffered from gastritis. My surgeon told me that he always fixes a hernia, no matter what the size, when he is performing the vsg. I am 2 weeks post op now. Other than some extreme nausea the first 24 hours I am doing well. Good luck!

I don't have to take any elimination product. No clean out procedure.
My office does two weeks of liquid diet and on the last night before surgery, you carb load with about 30 ounces of white grape juice. I have a feeling the grape juice makes things move if they need to. LOL:)

No she wouldn't be the first. She also wouldn't be the first to wake up after being put under to find out they didn't have surgery. Good your surgery went well and yes we are all human but to be sure and also about being able to stick to something to prepare you for the liquid diet after it's best to not have plans of cheating in mind because alot of people can't get back on the wagon as you did

Sent from my Vivo 5R using BariatricPal mobile app

Good for you hope everything goes well when you get out the hospital stick to your plan and things will be okay had my surgery on the 27th

Sent from my SM-N920P using BariatricPal mobile app

All went well, surgeon said it couldn’t have gone better. Pains much better this morning, but I still feel as though I’ve been kicked in the chest. Breathing in deeply still hurts a lot too.

Burping apparently helps with gas pain. Still haven’t eaten anything, but taking small sips.

I’m about to go in for my x-ray and then I can go home - a bit nervous of how I’ll be at home, but I think I will be ok if the pain medication is good.

Love to you all and blessings. Even in pain I know this is the best decision of my life

Xxxx

Daily. Do you have a fitbit yet? For me, wearing a fitbit has been an absolute godsend. Instead of having a set exercise goal, I have a burned calorie goal daily. Doesn't matter how I get those calories burned...tons of walking or a couple of good spurts of cardio and moderate walking....what matters is that I get 3000 calories a day burned. (My bestie burns 2500 a day and has really good success)
At the end of the day....what matters most is a calorie deficit between what goes in and what goes out. To lose one pound in a week, you need to burn off 3500 more calories than you eat. For two pounds..7000, so about a thousand more calories burned each day. In 12 weeks, you've lost 38 pounds! That's pretty awesome! Be patient with yourself and your body, but keep tracking and finding ways to up the calories out side of the equation.
For me...the Fitbit (or any other device that can track your expended calories) is the best way to track that and improve the number.

Good luck, please update!

Dec 4th at 9:30

I’m so happy Frankette👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾😀 congratulations!!! My surgery is Tuesday 😀 December 5th 2017👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾😀

I got a call this morning telling me what time to report to the hospital on Monday morning for the surgery. 7:30 am !! ! It feels really weird and surreal. I'm excited but also strangely calm about it. I think it is because this has been such a long journey this year. I went to my first surgeons's consult on Jan 27th 2017 and I'm finally ending 2017 with my surgery in Dec. I've read so many books, and posts, and watched so many Youtube videos about everything. I feel prepared . I'm ready for this change. 2018 is going to be about a healthier , more active me. I can't wait.

I got my surgery on the 28th and I’ve been up and down in my weight for years as well. As Lon as you follow everything pre op and have a good support system for your post op it’ll be worth it.

Congrats! I have mine on the 5th:)