Tiffykins

Many congrats to you ! ! !

Hi there and welcome to VST. The burping definitely gets better as the weeks go by, and the swelling decreases. Keep sipping, walking and resting. Keep us posted on your progress.

Yeppers, we are smack dab in the middle between Pensacola and Destin. I had my revision at Eglin. The husband is stationed out of Hurlburt Field, and we live off-base in Navarre. It's about a 40 minute drive to downtown Pensacola from our house.

My husband would probably protest as he's gotten quite spoiled to my adventurous recipes. If he only knew he was eating ground flax seed laced and Splenda sweetened banana nut muffins. Ha ha ha I'll just keep posting my yummy creations. I finally figured out how to "season" my wok, and am so stoked that I can make my own Asian inspired favorites here at the house for 1/3 the cost of dining out.

Angie, it's great to hear from you. Glad to hear all is well for you and baby.

Change up your menu, incorporate a few more calories, or add extra Water. Everyone that I've talk to here and OH that cut the carbs to around 30 a day, and change up their menu always see the scale move. Sometimes we just gotta shake things up to get the scale moving again.

I would want to know how many gastrectomies he's performed. A lot or several isn't a solid enough answer for me. My revision hadn't perform a ton of revisions, but he had done over 200 sleeves, and over 400 RNY surgeries, and he had removed several lap bands without revising. So, while that might not of been good enough for some, it was good for me. Plus, he had zero leaks, or deaths with any of his patients. I met one of his patients and she raved about him. I grilled him intensely. I was his first leak, and honestly I can't blame him. The band destroyed my stomach tissue, and we didn't know the extent until he was in there. I honestly don't fault him for my complication. He repaired the leak immediately, and I had a much quicker recovery than other patients that have experienced leaks due to his surgical intervention to repair the leak. A lot of this surgery is about surgical technique. A surgeon can use a standard size bougie and still make big sleeves or leave part of the fundus behind. The 300 number gives more practice therefore perfecting technique. And, of course, decreasing complications due to several surgeries under their belt. Research, ask for patient testimonials, and get as much info on him and his sleeve patient's results.

It has absolutely nothing to do with bougie size based on my experience. I know that I can eat more than other patients on this board that have bigger bougie size than I have. I can eat more dense Protein in one meal than they can. The bougie size isn't the end all be all to determining sleeve capacity. I chew my food a lot, I eat super slow, I eat protein first for 90% of the time. It's just how my body is adjusting. I could easily gain if I really wanted to do so. If you have a good surgeon, nutritionist/dietician on your side then you can make adjustments to your diet to avoid becoming underweight or malnourished. You need a good medical support system behind you to help guide you through these different stages. It's all a learning experience. My goal weight was set high, I knew this going in. I am by no means anorexic looking. I am actually pretty hourglass shaped. My face doesn't look gaunt, my eyes are not sunken in, I don't look sick, I'm not pale or gangly looking. My fat has restributed, and my bones aren't protruding. You stop the weight loss by monitoring your calories, increasing carbs, and healthy fats, and calories. It's not difficult to do, but your body has to make adjustment to the changes. I just had gallbladder surgery on February 4th, and that screwed with my eating. Therefore, I lost a few pounds. Also, a lot of people fall below their goal weight with all of the surgery options. A lot of people say their body just stopped when it was comfortable and they hadn't changed anything from when they first started maintaining. Like I said, my labs are perfect, I'm still in a normal weight range, my body fat percentage is still higher than what I'd like, but I am doing my best to maintain.

My email is tifjb1@yahoo.com you can also find me on Facebook with the search feature using that email address. If you send an email or Facebook friend request make sure you put VST or VSG in the title/subject so I don't discard the email or ignore the friend request. I'm always available if you need anything. I've been there and done that with the band, and had a complicated revision and recovery because of it.

Hi and first off welcome. As a band to sleeve revision, let me just say this, that while I loved food before my revision, guess what I still love food, and above the food, I love that I'm in control of my food intake. Eating with the sleeve is truly effortless. I know it's a difficult concept to grasp, I didn't believe it pre-revision, but seriously, it's pretty awesome. Sleeve vs. the band is night vs. day, everything is different. To answer you questions: 1) No one single regret. To answer the 2nd part, not no but HELL NO. 2) I'm having a bit of difficulty maintaining, but it's a learning experience. You add healthy fat, carbs, and calories to your diet since you aren't in the losing stage anymore. I have stopped my cardio, and am back to just my lifting routine since I don't need to burn, burn my calories, I need to build more muscle mass to burn the fat, but build muscle and maintain my current weight. I am still well within a normal body weight for my height, and my labs have been perfect post-op so I am not unhealthy, malnourished, or sick because I'm 20lbs below goal. 3) Only 30% of RNY patients experience dumping so it's not a guarantee. Anyways, I eat sweets a few times a week now that I am not really watching my carb count as carefully as I did during my losing phase. 4 & 5) It's pretty much normal puking. Obviously, you need to protect yourself immediately after surgery, Lysol, hand sanitizer, etc etc, as your immune system can be suppressed immediately post-op, you don't want to be puking during the 6 weeks of staple line healing. But, it's pretty much just normal puking. Now, early out when you're learning to eat with the sleeve, you may have to puke up something, but for me it's kind of like a creeper feeling coming up my esophagus. It's not the normal "upchucking, wretching" puking you do with the band. 6) Can't help ya there, but I eat anything and everything I want, just smaller portions. If your trips are further out than the post-op diet, then you should be fine in other countries. 7) The first few days post-op you'll be exhausted so outside of sipping as much as you can, resting when your body tells you it needs rest, and walking to help rid your body of the gas, you won't be able to do much. I recommend cooking up plenty of quick/easy casseroles, and food for your family as you recover. Food smells absolutely made me want to hurl so I ordered food from Schwann's for my kiddo and the husband was deployed during my revision and recovery. Seeing your from Texas, we're planning a Dallas meet-up April 3rd, lunch and shopping and socializing. The final details haven't been nailed down. But, thought I'd put the bug in your ear if you'd like to join us. I'll post a big thread when we get closer to the 3rd. Who is performing your revision? Best wishes, and keep us posted on your progress.

Everyone's anatomy is different. But, it's been discussed that taller people may have longer sleeves than us short patients. I'm on 5'2", and I can eat 1 slice of pizza minus the thickest part of the crust.

I hear running definitely tones up, but all the runners that I know personally suffer from tiny hiney. Now, I love, love, love squats, lunges, and these funky tippy toe exercises I do to help my toosh. I have noticed that I'm getting a little curve to the bottom of my butt, and jeans actually look good on me.

John is loving on his mistress Call of Duty whore on PS3, the kiddo has a friend staying the night, and I'm bored out of my mind.

Congrats ! ! ! I'm so glad to hear you had a wonderful experience, surgery and cheers to a quick recovery.

We seriously need to get together ! ! ! Y'all are about 6.5-7 hours from me. I'll roadtrip if y'all wanna talk about maybe getting together in April sometime.

You got support here ! ! ! I can imagine you do feel alone, but we'll be here to cheer you on. I'm so glad to hear that you can take NSAIDS and don't have med restrictions. I understand your husband's concerns. It's great that he is so supportive. Keep us posted, and we'll be here for you.

Maybe if you could find some soy Protein drinks that would help. I know a lot of patients that developed lactose intolerances post-op. Good luck, Lee. Invest in sensitive skin baby wipes.

I only ate mashed potatoes minimally. They helped me when nothing else would settle with my tummy. But, that only lasted temporarily. I eat fat-free or 2% milk cheeses, pork rinds, beef Jerky, and those steak nuggets. Plain, non-fat Fage Greek yogurt was a staple I could only eat 1/4 cup of it, with 9grms of carbs per cup, I was getting a little more than 2grms per serving. I sweetened it with Splenda. I stuck to 3-4 meals per day no snacking/grazing. Once I got to full purees/soft foods, chicken/tuna/egg salad became staples, along with laughing cow low fat cheese. I ate A LOT of deli meat with laughing cow and cream cheese. I definitely didn't eat cooked carrots, or other high glycemic index veggies. I never cared about net carbs vs. carbs. A carb is a carb for me. I ate a lot of green Beans and steamed broccoli florets as well. An entire large stalk of broccoli contains 20grams of carbs. I figured if I'm eating 3 little florets that can't be too many carbs.

How absolutely fabulous Mini ! ! ! I'm so proud of you.

I'm with you on the deflated look. My boobs resemble basset hound ears. I almost feel like I gotta roll 'em up to get them to look decent in a push-up bra. All I keep saying is "Thank the good Lord above for clothing." Cause I definitely am not a fan of the wilted, deflated look.

Thank y'all so much. It's been a weird feeling with him not here, but I also know that he's not suffering. I was getting some shoes out of the closet the other day, and I found a tuft of his hair. I practically lost it. He like to sleep in my shoes. There's little reminders of him all over the place. I love him, will always miss him, and I hope I'm able to find the strength to go back to the vet when they call to let me know his ashes are available for pick up.

Just a little backstory. Harley our cat has been in my life for the last 11 years. My son and him have grown up together, and he was like a second child to me. This weekend, we noticed some behavioral changes, listlessness, just not himself and then some labored breathing. Scheduled an appt with the vet, but today he declined severely and rapidly. I took him in this afternoon. And, after an x-ray and other diagnostics, it was determined that his prognosis was extremely grave. His symptoms came on extremely quickly, and today he had peripheal edema all over his body. His final diagnosis was some sort of neoplasia (cancer) with secondary kidney failure. There was nothing they could honestly give him that would give him the quality of life that I think pets deserve. I could chosen to give him lasix for a few days, but honestly it would not have given him anything more than a couple of days, and then he would decline again. We came to the heartbreaking decision to let him go. I bawled for 2 hours at the vet waiting for my husband to get off duty on base, and get to the vet. My son is heartbroken as this is his first loss of a pet. I was a vet tech for 12 years, and regardless of how many times I had to comfort 1000's of pet owners through this process, nothing prepared me for how I would feel at this very moment. I was a single mom for 8 years before meeting my husband, and Harley was my best friend and like a second kiddo. He lived a fabulous life with us as more than just a pet. He slept with me every night, making biscuits on my belly, and would greet me at the door when coming home. This was our day in and day out routine. I definitely was not emotionally prepared for this, and watching my son say his final "good-bye" was absolutely heart-wrenching. My husband and I stayed with Harley during the procedure as I don't believe in having strangers comfort our loved ones in their last moments. I chose to have him privately cremated, and his ashes will be returned to me in a little cedar box. I couldn't bring myself to bury him in Florida knowing that we'll get orders and move from here. It was difficult laying in bed tonight and not have him there with me. I can only imagine how difficult the next few days, weeks and months will be as I will truly mourn this loss as I would any other loss of a family member. Harley was more than just a housecat, he was my comforter through all my complications post-op this past summer, he kept me company when John is deployed or away at training, he chased the 46lb basset hound around the house, kickin his ass and taking names. While I know we made the right decision, I almost can not forgive myself for letting him go. I made my husband promise me that he would not bring another cat home until I let him know that I was ready. John made it home a few minutes before myself and my son, he got his cat box, food and water bowls put away so I wouldn't have to deal with all that. Truly, my husband is my rock in situations like this, and I'm so grateful he was able to be there with me today. If you pray, please keep my family in your prayers. I was outside tonight on my porch. star gazing, and I saw this beautiful falling star and all I could think to wish for was comfort and peace for my son. He understands that it had to be done, but it doesn't make it any easier on him. They were literally the best of buds for the last 11 years, and my son is only 11.5 years old. My heart is full of memories of Harley and his shenanigans, and I will cherish those memories forever.

Congrats on getting your consults scheduled ! ! ! Make sure you keep us posted on how things progress for you.

Wooohooo, I bet it felt fabulous ! ! !