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HI everyone! I was sleeved on Fri 7/11/14 and also had a hiatel hernia taken care of. I've been in so much pain since then, drs say its normal bc i have stitches on esophagus and stomach obviously. Just want to kno if anyone else had this as well? It hurts goin down and i have to belch to get pocket out, i cant even do protein shakes! My incisions do not hurt nor my belly just esophagus!! Anyone experience this?

I've been thinking of this for 15 yrs..I had 2 specialist refer me to have this done. I have had 2 yrs of psychotherapy. ..I see a therapist regular. I have been on every diet known to man an then some. I had turned to food over 30 yrs ago have yoyod weight this whole time. Iv learned thru therapy what is the underlying issues of this learned behavior an I have stopped that cycle for the most part I slip here an there but I don't use food for comfort or fill a void an I'm not saying everyone does or anyone on this forum. I'm just saying about me. Some of my issues are depression when I'm in a rut for the most part I'm stable winter gloomy days are worst at times but I do take medication to keep it controlled. I am also for most of life hypothyroidism. ..this yr I finally seen an endocrinologist an insisted on certain test...finally was dx with hashis an insulin resistance. So the past 15 months I have put on another 50 pds...this weight is exhausting to carry. I'm at 255 I've never been this big.an I'm tired of beating myself up bc no matter wat I do the weight keeps goin up. ..I have to eat less then 400 cal in order to loose anything but just eating that amount with such a large stomach I feel starved an growls all the time if I do that but by reducing the size I will b satisfied with baby portion. Sure enuff I met criteria an more.I'm a committed person that's just my personality an this will enable me as a tool to just eat to live an not live to eat. I can't think of wks or months down the road I don't make plans period I take one day at a time. Its overwhelming if you worry about down the road.if I don't do this I'll continue down this road of misery an fat with no self esteem an continue hiding an let life just pass by or I can do this for me an get healthy. But this has been my journey an the steps I took to get here. Therapy saved me! She helped me by looking at other perspectives for me...I'm not saying this for you but this is wat I've done already an things have just fallen into place...its normal for second thoughts it's serious step. Iv just made up my mind I want to change my life. I'm 50 yrs old...I've spent 35 yrs overweight an unhealthy. I wish you the best an I hope my experiences can help you...sory so lengthy. ..be sure your ready with heart an mind....

I am super frustrated bc I cannot seem to get a roll with losing the last 40! I upped my working-out and now I am hungry more often. I think I need a fill but when I went for a scan they said it was perfectly balanced! FRUSTRATION is taking over and I need a little support- anything?

It's likely "more potent" bc of your weightloss.

Why not? It's certainly been done before. The earliest scripture is generally considered to be the “Pentateuch”, the first five books of the Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy… though there is some scholarly evidence to indicate that the Old Testament Book of Job may actually be the oldest book in the Bible. These writings were passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. By approximately500 BC, the 39 Books that make up the Old Testament were completed, and continued to be preserved in Hebrew on scrolls. As we approach the last few centuries before Christ, the Jewish historical books known as the “Apocrypha” were completed, yet they were recorded in Greek rather than Hebrew. By the end of the First Century AD, the New Testament had been completed. The oldest copies of the New Testament known to exist today are: The Codex Alexandrius and the Codex Sinaiticus in the British Museum Library in London, and the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican. They date back to approximately the 300’s AD. In 315 AD, Athenasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, identified the 27 Books which we recognize today as the canon of New Testament scripture. In 382 AD, the early church father Jerome translated the New Testament from its original Greek into Latin. This translation became known as the “Latin Vulgate”, (“Vulgate” meaning “vulgar” or “common”). He put a note next to the Apocrypha Books, stating that he did not know whether or not they were inspired scripture, or just Jewish historical writings which accompanied the Old Testament. The Apocrypha was kept as part of virtually every Bible scribed or printed from these early days until just 120 years ago, in the mid-1880’s, when it was removed from Protestant Bibles. Up until the 1880’s, however, every Christian… Protestant or otherwise… embraced the Apocrypha as part of the Bible, though debate continued as to whether or not the Apocrypha was inspired. There is no truth to the popular myth that there is something “Roman Catholic” about the Apocrypha, which stemmed from the fact that the Roman Catholics kept 12 of the 14 Apocrypha Books in their Bible, as the Protestants removed all of them. No real justification was ever given for the removal of these ancient Jewish writings from before the time of Christ, which had remained untouched and part of every Bible for nearly two thousand years. The first hand-written English language Bible was produced in the 1380’s by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. The invention of the printing press in the 1450’s made the Bible widely available to lay people. In 1496, John Colet, another Oxford professor and the son of the Mayor of London, started reading the New Testament in Greek and translating it into English for his students at Oxford, and later for the public at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. In 1516 the scholar Erasmus published a Greek translation of the New Testament. This milestone was the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the scripture to be produced in a millennium… and the first ever to come off a printing press. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German from Erasmus Greek-Latin text and eventually went on to publish an entire Bible in German in the 1530’s. William Tyndale wanted to use the same 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print the New Testament in English for the first time in history. Tyndale showed up on Luther's doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year's end had translated the New Testament into English. The first complete English Bible was printed on October 4, 1535, and is known as the Coverdale Bible. John Rogers went on to print the second complete English Bible in 1537. It is a composite made up of Tyndale's Pentateuch and New Testament (1534-1535 edition) and Coverdale's Bible and some of Roger's own translation of the text. It remains known most commonly as the Matthew-Tyndale Bible. In 1539 the Archbishop of Canterbury hired Myles Coverdale to publish King Henry VIII’s “Great Bible”. It became the first English Bible authorized for public use. In the 1550's, the Church at Geneva, Switzerland, was very sympathetic to the Protestant reformers. Many of them met in Geneva, and under the protection of John Calvin, the Church of Geneva determined to produce their own Bible. Their New Testament was completed in 1557 and the complete Bible was first published in 1560. It became known as the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible became the Bible of choice for over 100 years of English speaking Christians. Between 1560and1644 at least 144 editions of this Bible were published. In 1568, a revision of the Great Bible known as the Bishop's Bible was introduced. Despite 19 editions being printed between 1568 and 1606, this Bible, referred to as the “rough draft of the King James Version”, never gained much of a foothold of popularity among the people. With the death of Queen Elizabeth I, Prince James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. The Protestant clergy approached the new King in 1604 and announced their desire for a new translation to replace the Bishop's Bible. This "translation to end all translations" (for a while at least) was the result of the combined effort of about fifty scholars. In 1611 the first version of the King James Bible was published. The Anglican Church’s King James Bible took decades to overcome the more popular Protestant Church’s Geneva Bible. One of the greatest ironies of history, is that many Protestant Christian churches today embrace the King James Bible exclusively as the “only” legitimate English language translation… yet it is not even a Protestant translation! It was printed to compete with the Protestant Geneva Bible, by authorities who throughout most of history were hostile to Protestants… and killed them. Throughout the 1600’s, as the Puritans and the Pilgrims fled the religious persecution of England to cross the Atlantic and start a new free nation in America, they took with them their precious Geneva Bible, and rejected the King’s Bible. America was founded upon the Geneva Bible, not the King James Bible.

Once again, I must call BS. Show me one post where I mocked the scripture. Where I showed a hatred of Jesus. Or admit you are lying about me. I take that seriously. Interesting to me that you equate yourself with scripture...:myscared:

OK, I have to call BS. I have seen no sign whatsoever of TOM "crying like a baby" at your questions.

We checked our package and read through the entire guidelines and it says nothing about bariatric surgery. Yes, I vented, and with good reason. I do blame insurance companies. They are misleading and do whatever they can to weasel out of actually paying for anything. I lost 15 lbs under a diet set forth by my nutritionist. I say that's more telling than 6 months consecutive. It's arbitrary and trite and bs. Ok now I'm done venting. I have a dietician appt next week and still waiting on pcp appt. Shes very hard to get appts with.

Though your doc can request you pay for the COPY fee for your records, they have to give them to you. I would find a new doc. Don't burn any bridges till you find a new doc, but I think the new port thing is BS. What happens if you have an emergency? Are you going to wait in his office for 2 hours for him to see you? I had a prolapse and my tech lecctured me on why I waited so long to call him. You need to find someone that takes your band seriously so you can feel better!

That is so important to hear. At another site where I post I was told that it is people like me who never served, who don't understand. I have posted this many times before, so you can look it up. When I was 19, in 1964, I was gung-ho military and tried to enlist in the US Air Force. I failed my physical because of injuries suffered while playing freshman football in college. The last step of the pre-induction physical was a 26 page questionnaire and the last question was "Are you the sole surviving son of a man killed in the service of the US Military". My father was a US Army Sargent killed in Berlin in WW11 on the day after I was born in 1945, so I answered “yes”. I was told that I failed the physical that day and about 3 weeks later a new draft classification card came in the mail with a classification of “4A”. I was ready to serve, though knowing what I know now, I am glad my knee kept me out of that war; Another war in which we dismissed the French. We laughed at the French for leaving Vietnam and we kept laughing at the French until 65,000 of our youth were dead, many times that many more maimed and many times that number who had miserable lives because of much higher rates of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, crime, spousal abuse and suicide than that of the people who did not serve in Vietnam. And for what? We lost. The dominoes never came down. We were fed a line of crap, just like in 2002 leading up to the 2003 Illogical Illegal Iraqi Invasion. When will we learn? Aren't you glad you asked? I contributed my father. Can you top that?

Not sure if this would help with the Protein but my bariatric clinic at the hospital gives a lobg list of recommended protein supplements both powder and liquid. On the list is a liquid protwin called body fortress suoer protein shot. Is liquid form, only 3oz, and packs in 26g of protein. No caffeine, sugars. Someone on the board mentioned to be careful bc of the different types of protein (soy versus others). But I think its an awesome way to get a good amount of protein in with just a few oz total. I bought 24 little tubes since the bariatric nutritionist said it was a okay

Hi there! My husband just recently retired from the Navy... So now my life has some kind of stability... So that being said, I finally had the courage to ask my pcm that I was interested in bariatric surgery. I have asked 3 pcms prior to my current pcm at Kimbrough for a referral to General Surgery and with them being Army docs and nurses, they ALL said to diet and exercise, like "they" do. I was afraid to ask AGAIN after failed attempts to go to the gym (you think I would have the courage to go to the gym after the feds eliminated my position in April!) and eating right portions,but my PCM noticed that I gained 50 lbs within a 2 year period and steadily climbing up. Yes, did all the testing, thyroid, diabetes, but I just have PCOS and HBP (being managed by meds) and being fat just runs in my genetics. Overall, per my pcm (though she didn't say fat, lol), I'm "healthy" but fat. Diabetes and thyroid issues run in my family though and she wants to prevent that from happening. I'm about to call the Bariatric Dept to see what my next steps are... But I was wondering if anyone out there who has gone through any weight loss procedure with Walter Reed/Bethesda? Or any MTF? I have gone through their website but still have many thoughts, questions... Overall, MTF care is way, way different than civillian care and have had nothing but excellent care done with military treatment facilities. Sometimes you hear horror stories about MTF surgeries but I have faith in our military system. I really, really would like to hear from you if you had the surgery in an MTF or also thinking about it too!

Wish someone would have told me that you lose all your weight via explosive diarrhea followed by a hot/cold sweat that you feel like you'll pass out, bc then I would have passed on getting this surgery done. Is this something that lasts forever? I've been trying to follow directions with drinking enough Water and getting Protein in....I did eat maybe 8-10 soft macaroni elbows like 3 days ago which is when all of this started. Is it too late to get my stomach back? How does anyone live a normal life like this? I'm supposed to go back to work next week, little do they know I'll be working from the restrooms I guess. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Been saying it for years. Exercise has many benefits and I'll keep doing it as long as I am allowed and able, but the calorie burn, at least to me, isn't what it's about. When I hear things like...."I burned 650 calories in 30 minutes".......my BS detector goes off. Not that the person stating that is lying or knows it's not true, it's just the equipment tells them that, and of course we want to believe it. Heck, I used to believe it. http://www.salon.com/2015/01/27/your_exercise_equipment_is_lying_to_you_partner/

I am looking for any suggestions for what to eat for breakfast besides shakes and eggs! Eggs have started to give me problems and I'm bummed bc it's such an easy source of protein, but I pb every time now. Any ideas? Thanks!!

I am 14 werks post op started at 322 I am as pf today 251 down 73 pounds and my biggest nsv is wearing old navy clothes. I have never boughten anything from there bc I was tooo fat. Now I am a xl shirt and 20 pant ( loose now )

Mozzy, I think we were sleeved the same day bc Im having the same pain as you. Even the smallest sip of water.. I feel it go down my throat and as soon as it hits my stomach I cramp. I'm on the anti-spasm meds so I don't know why I'm hurting like this. I was supposed to be discharged today but they figured if I can't drink, ill end up right back in the er for dehydration. I'm trying much harder tonight and Im having better luck getting apple juice down

OK... Help Please--- I called BC/BS PPO last month and they said my surgery is covered. I assumed (and evidently this is a good example of where that gets you...) that everything would be covered whether as outpatient or inpatient surgery. Can someone who knows please straighten me out on this? Will Dr. Schmitt's office give me a breakdown of any out of pocket costs? Thanks so much!!!

I knew I had a fatty liver bc my sleeve surgeon took my gall bladder out 3 years ago. He mentioned it at that time. I think they can also see it on an ultrasound sometimes. The funny thing is that even knowing that fact, I had NO pre-op diet at all!

I have BC/bs Ohio but it's an employee plan.

There is also the No-NO hair remover home laser, and the new ones are approved for use on the face. I think I will be getting one of these REAL soon bc I have noticed all my hair is growing faster...now I read it's prolly the Biotin... LOL O well it's a trade off bc the hair on my head is thinner..so I'm trying to get a jump on that since my surg is 2-6 but now my leg and face hair is double time

So I went for my yearly and have a new dr. she asked what I was taking for BC and I said nothing and she stressed how easily I can get pg if I'm not on BC... I explained my infertility and at the end of the visit she said well I guess I will see you when u come in pregnant... I was like uh huh That will be in 2000....never! But if its meant to be it will happen and if it isn't I guess it won't. I'm not stressing over it anymore!

How can I say this? When we know better, we do better...this is especially true in medicine.. My aunt was heavy, too heavy. Really high BMI. I don't know what she weighed, but very short and very heavy. Eventually couldn't hardly walk at all. The surgery they offered then was state of the art for that time. It was some kind of lap band that she got that got all wrapped around her insides to the point that it had be removed b/c she couldn't get food down at all. But that time has passed, it was the first lap band or stomach stapling and that was gosh, 30 years ago. She died 13 years ago or so, from being overweight. She was in her late 50's, and otherwise she had been healthy - just heart problems from being overweight for so long, loss of muscle tissue, etc. She prayed for that magic pill to lose weight. In time the magic weight loss pill came along and it damaged people's heart valves, not hers I guess bc she was already gone, but it did damage my dad's valve. Then there was the more modern lap band, then the bypass/RNY/DS, etc. and now the sleeve. And actually now the sleeve plication. You gotta realize your doctor is working with the most up to date information. We get used to hearing about things like lap band and it was great for some, or gastric bypass, which some people did well. But now the sleeve is better than those. Maybe you really do need to look at data. Kinda sounds like you really wanted gastric bypass, but what if this is better? I weighed 220 and I was paying cash bc my insurance did not cover ANY WLS or complications from WLS. I asked my doctor which surgery would be best for me long term, most effective, safest, etc. I didn't ask which was cheapest, because I didn't care. He immediately said sleeve. I went to a nutrition meeting with like 6 other people getting WLS. Some lap band and some gastric bypass. All of them were on insurance. They were all getting the lap band or gastric bypass, but all wished they were getting the sleeve. Their insurance did not cover it bc it was too new, That was a year ago so since then a lot are covering it. At a certain point you gotta pick a doctor and trust him. I do have one question though. The sleeve plication is even less risky than the sleeve, from the little I've read here, so if you were not able to lose weight to have the surgery (the 100 lbs) then could you get the plication at least temporarily to keep you from being able to overeat? I just wondered if you had spoken with your doctor about that. The plication is where the stomach is not cut but it is rolled up and stiched so that only a small portion of the stomach is available to put food into. I was wondering though. 100 lbs seems like a lot to lose before surgery, but I know he is trying to help you. I wish you the best.

You're right about the Simply Chips. They had the worst reviews, and that was one of them. I'm interested in the Quest chips bc they are comparable to their bars, which were hard for me to get past a few bites, and a quick way to get some protein. I also agree with focusing on more natural protein sources, but I'm looking for some variety and "treats" that will fulfill some head cravings while still providing nutritional value. Do you happen to have any good recipes for puréed foods? I saw the ricotta bake and refried Beans, but looking for more. Thanks :-)

Hi Blerdgirl, Happy u had no surgical complications. Sorry u got the flu and hope u feel better soon! bs