NadaMas

I've not yet had my surgery (scheduled for 3/19 - Yay me!), but my thoughts on this type of commentary would be something along these lines:
"Yes, you could consider this the easy way out - I'm using a tool that increases my sucess rate & quality of life - Much like I'd use a shovel when digging a hole. But I must admit - considering the hole you just dug for yourself - maybe you should go into the construction business..."
Is that too harsh?

I believe that Dr Aceves typically does the traditional w/ 5 incisions. One thing to note - I followed the pre op diet (w/ a couple of slip ups) and my liver had shrunk enough that he didn't need to retract it, so I only have 4 incisions. So, he adapts to what he finds with each patient. Also, the scars are small & mine healed easily.
I wish you the best of luck! You'll be in great hands with Dr Aceves & his entire team!

I want to encourage you to do your best w/ the pre-surgery diet. I adopted a high Protein, low-carb diet a few months prior to the surgery in addition to the official 2 week idiet mmediately prior. I did have a couple of "food funerals", but tried to behave the majority of the time.
This paid off for me during surgery - my liver had shrunk enough that Dr. Aceves didn't even need to retract my liver out of the way. So I have 4 tiny incisions instead of the usual 5.
So please - keep up the good work - You'll be glad that you did!!

I just got these a wk or so and have only tried the black bean ones so far, and I really like them! They are great if you are missing a crunch every now and then.

I adore these! Theyre wonderful! However, beware, they cause quite a bit of gas. I always take beano before. ( :

Has anyone tried these? They are a healthier version of chips - made from either black Beans or a pinto beans/flax seed combo. I found them online & (after I finished laughing about the name) tried a couple of varieties -black bean Chipolte BBQ & black bean original.
I'm pre-surgery & tostitos are a weakness of mine - I thought that these might be a reasonable substitute for an occassional treat. And I was so surprised at how good they are! They may not work for everyone, but they work for me. I use them w/ nachos, dips, snacking, etc. Here's some of the nutitional highlights:
Corn Free
Low Glycemic
Gluten Free
High Fiber
(Relatively) Good Protein

They say that a serving size is 10 chips & for that the breakdown is as follows:
140 calories (60 calories from fat)
total fat - 7 g.
total carbs - 15 g.
Fiber 5 g.
Protein 4 g.

Its not an ideal choice & obviously one that I won't eat for a while once I'm sleeved, but I was happy to find something to help get the tostitos monkey off my back.
I apologize if this sounds like a commercial, but I was happy & wanted to share.

I'm so glad to hear that!! Congrats!! Welcome to the rest ( & best) of your life!

I saw some bird seed on the road and, despite my sleeve, I ate the whole pile. What a mistake! There were ball bearings in that seed and the coyote had a big magnet!! Luckily a truck ran over him before he could eat me.

HI,
Feel free to ask me anything, nothing is confidential. Dr Aceves usually does an epidural but I didn't have one. There were 2 others getting sleeved the same day and both of them did. You will be shocked at how much you talk to all of the Dr's before your surgery and when you talk with the Dr that gives the drugs for you in the operating room he will tell you what he exactly what and how he does everything. If I can remember correctly it is the afternoon before surgery.
I was a nervous wreck and they really did make it as pain free and as comfortable as I could have ever been.
Now that I think about it I was told I was going to have the epidural but never asked why I didn't get one. I do remember the Dr saying that he does it AFTER your asleep so you wouldn't feel it.
Good Luck to you and if you need to talk to me PM me your phone number and I will call you.

I just got in from my trip to Mexicali and I can only say I am amazed at how easy this was. I was sleeved by Dr. Aceves on February 28th. I am 57 years old and figured it would be rough because I hate pain and can be a bit of a baby. I expected the worse. I have had no nausea, no real pain- just discomfort, and have felt pretty good under the circumstances. The worst part was the trip home because I am not a big fan of flying. lol
All of the overly positive comments I had read about Dr. Aceves and Dr. Campos, the Hospital Almater- it was all true. It was a great experience. I especially want to thank the other patients that I shared the experience with. I hope to keep in touch with you all! I am really excited about moving forward in this journey. The best is yet to come!
Oh, and another round of thanks to everyone on this message board who have posted their stories and questions. This helped me immensely through the process! Thanks to all and best wishes!

I've not yet had my surgery (scheduled for 3/19 - Yay me!), but my thoughts on this type of commentary would be something along these lines:
"Yes, you could consider this the easy way out - I'm using a tool that increases my sucess rate & quality of life - Much like I'd use a shovel when digging a hole. But I must admit - considering the hole you just dug for yourself - maybe you should go into the construction business..."
Is that too harsh?

Right, ALM didn't mind continuing to book for Dr Kelly long after the incident in June that everyone is now bringing back up again. Suddenly they can't in good conscious refer potential patients to Dr Kelly. They were more than happy to endorse him as long as it benefited them in some way. They were happy to try to associate their current Dr with Dr Kelly by saying he was trained under him, which he wasn't. They were happy to let people think Dr Kelly and this other Dr was associated together as a team, which they were not. They were happy to use Dr Kellys name with other Dr until they got this Dr's name out on these forums and build up a clientele, anyone who's been around these boards any length of time knows that Dr Garcia just showed up on these boards a few months ago. I'm not saying anything bad about him, because I know nothing about him other than the fact that I've been on these weight loss surgery boards for 7 yrs and I am just now seeing his name. So if it were me personally, no I wouldn't use a Dr that just appeared on the scene. I wouldn't know if that meant that he had just started doing the VSG or what. It would make me think that is the case, and I preferred someone with a lot of experience. Dr Kelly still has an extremely good complication rate for the number of procedures that he has performed, and drudging up incidents from the past to continue to try discredit a Surgeon, or his patient coordinator is ridiculous. I had hoped now that ALM isn't working with Dr Kelly that the drama and BS would die down and we wouldn't have to see folks like GOTTAGO posting this kind of nonsense on the board. Speaking of, I encourage anyone that is in research mode of these Dr's to please look at the content of members such as GOTTAGO and you will find that all their posts are either discrediting Dr Kelly or promoting ALM. They aren't here to seek or offer support for anyone on their weight loss journey. It's apparent they are working for ALM or the surgeon or hospital he uses. Go to GOTTAGO's profile, click on content, and you'll see what I mean. Don't take anyone else's word on anything, not even mine. Do your own research. If you don't feel comfortable with Dr Kelly for whatever reason, then by all means DON'T have surgery with him. But why try to manipulate other people and their decision unless you have some kind of ulterior motive. Why spend all your time trying to talk people out of a surgeon. Let's hear about who you ended up choosing and what YOUR EXPERIENCE with a different Dr is, that is what we are all suppose to be doing.

I would like to kindly remind everyone to keep opinions of Other individuals to ourselves. Please stay on topic, as this is something that can really help others to make a final decision if this surgery is right for themselves.

This is NOT a decision to be made lightly.

Everyone's experiences will be different from another's and if someone regrets having their surgery then that is their own personal right.

I myself had buyers remorse, I believe even up to the first whole month. However today I feel completely different. I'm exactly where I'd hoped to be at the end of my journey, though I don't make THAT decision, my body does. Anyway even if I ended up right here, that's fine because right here is where I want to be. Thus, at nearly 10 months out... I have absolutely, positively ZERO REGRET!!