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I didn't tell mine until I got back. We are actually good friends, and he was a little upset that I didn't tell him ahead of time. But he's should be used to it. I also found my own neurosurgeon and scheduled my own neck fusion surgery after he diagnosed me with bone spurs and stenosis in my neck. He admitted he would have disapproved (that's why I didn't tell him). But my successful weight loss and outstanding 6 month bloodwork has convinced him that my crazy Mexico surgery adventure wasn't such a bad idea. And I know he would have done whatever it took to make sure I was taken care of if I had had any surgical complications.

I would think you are probably fine, but get it checked for peace of mind. And perhaps you should up your calories to more than 800 a day. Not more than 4-6 oz in a sitting, but more calories a day could be why you are hungry. I have to eat between 1400-2000 calories a day. Yeah I'm eating all day long.... but I worked my butt off to lose the weight, now I gotta work on keeping it up a bit (due to complications as my signature shows, I've not be a "normal" sleever and lost too much this last go around due to complications, so now I'm working at keeping my weight at 135, which I am below this week). I know at one point in my journey, 800 calories wasn't doing it for me. Perhaps you are just at that stage, but I hope to read you are fine and all is good after getting it checked. Best of luck, always.

I'm in Highlands. I'm also using Dr. Marvin. My surgery will be sometime in June. How are doing? Any complications?

I had breast cancer/DIEP reconstruction done that included a tummy tuck. I am about 70 lbs overweight now and am considering lap band. Does anyone know if there are any issues with banding since my skin and stomach are so tight in that area?

Had my preop this morning. My upper GI looked good, and I am waiting for lab results. Everyone keeps asking me, "are you excited?". My answer is that I am back and forth between nervous and excited. I am excited that my future is about to change and at the same time, I am paying someone to cut my stomach out...what the hell is wrong with me??!! My biggest fear is anesthesia, complications and getting enough protein/water.

talk to you Dr's office. My dr's office had an alternate diet that they moved me to which was basically a no/low carb high protien diet. Chicken, steak, pork, eggs, cheese... all allowed. It worked fine, I lost weight and had no complications with surgery.

I have the Swedish band, which has yet to be approved in the USA, but it holds a similar amount to the VG band. (but is softer, and less likely to cause complications). First fill. 4.5cc (no restriction) Second fill. 5.6cc (adequate restriction)

After reading through most of the boards, it looks like most people DO NOT diet (or change their diet) after being banded. I assumed and will change my eating habits to eat more clean (Sonoma, Michael Thurmond etc) as soon as I can eat solids. My question is, what diet do you follow if any Post Op? If not dieting and you eat all foods you did prior to banding, do you feel healthy and how long did it take to lose the weight? Also, any complications with the band because of food choices? Thanks!

Thank you so much for sharing! I have definitely come to the conclusion of bypass. Its best. I just need to do everything right to avoid dumping (it terrifies me). And with some luck, complications from surgery will be minimal...I'll be set. *Fingers crossed

I had surgery with Dr Kelly in Tijuana MX on May 10th this year. It cost $5500 plus airfare. That included 2 nights in the hospital, then 2 nights in the hotel Lucerna. Had a great time & no complications! If you want to view my journey I have a blog: http://njsharonjourney.blogspot.com/

Petra, You and I are similar. I am about as far in to the process as you and have doubts now and then, but then I get on here and all my doubts go away. I'm 35 and my BMI is 38 and I have high triglycerides and high fasting blood sugar. So I'm not diabetic yet, but w/ my fasting sugars and the fact that my identical twin is already diabetic, I'll take the small chance of possible risks over the ill health effects I'm already having. Nicely put by SoCalDixieGal I am an RN and I'm getting surgery so don't feel bad like you're taking the easy way out! My primary care doc who is skinny is AWESOME and she said it nicely when she said I'm taking control...as are you. I think the rate of leakage complications is 1-2% so I'll take that over the 50% chance I have of getting diabetes. I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant so that increases my risk. You will be able to have foods you had before but in much smaller amounts and not until probably 6 months to a year out (at least that's the idea I've gotten from these boards and my classes I've had so far:) Good luck to you, wish me luck that my insurance approves me! They say they want a BMI of 40 or 35-39 w/ co-morbidities which I have, but they seem to be more strict for the sleeve than the bypass which seems backwards doesn't it? Oh well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This is a really hard question to answer. The surgeons each have their own fee. Find out what it covers when researching which surgeon you want to do your surgery. Do you want to be in a hospital, in case of complications? Some surgeons send you to a recovery house, which is not a hospital.

I just wanted to share my story with you... I originally wanted the sleeve... My surgeon told me that because of my GERD and my severe gastroperesis I couldn't get it that the only solution to fix the Gastroperesis was the RNY since it was soo severe and none of the other solutions weren't working. I had many reservations about getting RNY but I trusted my surgeon and gastroenterologist and went ahead and did it... It's been over a year now.. I've lost over 120lbs... I feel amazing!! My stomach works again and digest all my food( no more gastropareris) I don't have any GERD whatsoever and I have taken nexium since the day before my surgery!!! I have had no complications caused from getting the bypass... I did get an ulcer but it was cause by the H. Pylori bacteria and my surgeon treated it with a 2 week cycle of 2 very strong antibiotics and 2 months of carafate... But besides that one tiny hiccup, life has been great!! I wouldn't count out a great tool because one or two people had a bad experience! The majority come out just as happy and healthy as those who have the sleeve!! We just have to take a few extra vitamins each day! Good luck !!!

There are approximately 160,000 bariatric surgeries performed in the U.S. every year. If you personally knew 1,600 friends that had the same experience, that would be 1% of the U.S. surgery population for a single year. Consider re-visiting your logic. Do you really want to make a decision as important as this one based on one person's experience? The majority of doctors do not recommend the sleeve for patients who have a history of GERD, even in the absence of Barrett's. You don't have to look any further than this forum to read stories from folks who have had the sleeve and are now having revisions to the bypass because of severe reflux issues. The sleeve is a highly successful, safe and effective option with a slightly lower complication rate than the bypass. But in your case, your doctor is making a medically based recommendation that the bypass would be a better choice. If you're not comfortable with that recommendation, then by all means seek a second opinion. To walk away from this life-changing opportunity to live a happier, healthier and longer life, free of obesity, is a terribly high price to pay based on one friend's experience. Go for it! You're gonna love the new you!!

So...lots of good news!!!! I called my insurance company today and found out I was approved (within 3 days no less)! I have my surgery scheduled for April 24th!! The whole process only took 4 months (from my first seminar to surgery date)! I am really happy and excited, but it all seemed to easy....its real but not 100% real right now. I am getting super scared and nervous! I want to keep only positive energy around me right now, but its so hard not to worry about the negatives....I am just hoping for a complication free quick recovery.

That's a tough one....I'd be in the same boat, if I told my children. I chose not to tell either one of my children exactly for this reason. They also watched a program with me about a 693 lb woman who had bariatric surgery & died within a month of complications. The last thing I'd do now is tell them but I have told my oldest son (17) that I'm having "hernia surgery." My 11 y/o son is autistic so I'm not going to worry him so far in advance (still have no surgery date) but I will tell him of the "hernia surgery" maybe just a few days prior to my sleeve surgery. With all that said, if my children DID find out in advance of my surgery plans, I was going to approach it with before & after pics of the wonderful people on this site that have shared their photo's with us. This way it's "visual" proof that not only did they not die from surgery but that they all looked so healthy in their "after" pics. We've learned to do a lot of visuals in my household due to my son. So that would be my suggestion, especially being that he's so young still. Pics might do the trick! Good luck to you! I'll be anxious to see what some other responses are!

I had the sleeve for vanity reasons. I was otherwise healthy and come from a family of 100 year old fat people who are relatively healthy The hardest part was that I had life threatening complications. Recovery was very slow and painful. I feel relatively normal now and am back in the swing of things generally. I am and was very confident but wanted to look better than I did after years of pregnancies and fertility treatments. They aren't good for the size of your bumm. I suppose some would call my goal "skinny" but it's in the middle of normal for me BMI wise. I have always been amply blessed with T&A even when I weighed 90lbs so I don't expect that will change much, they just might be a bit saggier

I think for many of us vanity enters in to some extent. It wasn't my primary reason for surgery, but certainly feeling "normal" and being a smaller person entered into the equation for me. I was diabetic and could hardly chase my toddler twins around. I took one look at my family, and realized that even wearing a 20/XXL and weighing 242 pounds I was the smallest woman. I didn't want this for my daughter - to grow up feeling like being so unhealthy and morbidly obese was the norm. One of my biggest reasons was the chance for my diabetes to resolve. I didn't want to suffer the complications of out of control diabetes for the rest of my life. So yes, I wanted to be healthier. But I wanted to be healthier by being smaller. Being skinny never entered my mind. I have never imagined myself as skinny or ever thought I'd even get this small, to be honest. My husband calls me skinny, but he just likes his ladies heavy! A realistic expectation would be to start with either a low weight you've accomplished in the past, a weight you enjoyed when you were there before or to resort to the BMI chart to pick something not in the obese range. You will not know how far you can go until you're losing. The last pounds are a challenge for many of us. I also caution against picking a scale goal as your ultimate goal. It's a sad fact that many of us don't reach them or if we do, are unable to maintain them. Your body will decide where it's happiest - and that will be the point where you can easily maintain your much smaller size without living on a diet. And that may or may not coincide with what you pick as your goal. Many people here have had to mentally struggle with the idea that they won't hit what they consider their ultimate goal, or with feelings of failure if they do manage to touch on it but are unable to sustain for the long run. All of this to say, the ultimate goal here for every one of us should be long term maintenance. NOT a number on the scale or a size of pants. It should be getting smaller, getting healthier, dropping the emotional food baggage and being able to live that way (and happily!) for the rest of our lives. The loss phase seems long while you're in it but it's one or two years of your life. Maintenance is forever. Speaking to that, maintenance and working out HOW to maintain is by and far the hardest part of the journey. Oh, recovery is a challenge (that darn liquid diet and the discomfort of surgery) and yes, learning to eat and track your food isn't easy, either. Dealing with minor annoyances like lactose intolerance or the need to take supplements and a PPI are no fun. But learning why you're obese and stopping the bad habits forever is without a doubt the hardest thing you will do for yourself. It is also the most rewarding. Acknowledging destructive behavior and stopping it is very difficult for some of us. Many people that do not adopt a healthy, moderate lifestyle and break those bad habits prior to goal will struggle in maintenance. I urge you now, before surgery, to consider not just losing the weight but HOW you plan to do it. I do not feel that anyone should approach this surgery like a diet. By that I do not mean we should eat the way we did prior to surgery. But I feel that simply restricting calories and carbs down to very low levels and rocketing to goal in nine months does not teach us what we really need to learn here. And that's how to live like normal people, like people that have never had a weight problem and people for whom food is just food, and not something to crave or binge on or feel guilty about. I wish you the best of luck. There are some very great threads out there - some on the post op board and some on the success board - about the loss expectations and how to live out there. Even take the time to check out the weight specific board, the vet board and the maintenance threads. These are the people that had surgery and made it to goal...and are living life afterward. Our perspective is different because we've hit the other end of the journey. We can tell you from experience that post operative discomfort or a liquid diet are very small challenges in comparison to living a totally new life. And make sure to read both the positive stories and negative ones, to have a fully informed expectation! Read stall threads and slow loss threads, not just the threads where people fly to goal in six months. You need a well-rounded idea of all the possibilities before surgery, because you do not know what camp you'll be in afterward. Be well, ~Cheri

I'm going to my (second) consultation on Feb 14th. I have a list of questions I plan to ask - please let me know if you think I should add any others: will I be able to take any kind of NSAIDs for my arthritis in the long term will you be able to fix my hiatal hernia at the same time as the sleeve how many incisions will you make how many VGS have you performed proportion of your patients have developed leaks or other serious complications will you be able to prescribe liquid Vitamins, other versions of my many medications while I am healing and unable to swallow large pills post surgery support systems available chances my GERD will actually get worse after surgery will my anemia and low Vitamin B levels get worse after this surgery/injections for these? Feedback appreciated - thanks!

I only want to go through this once. It seems the alternatives have a higher chance of complications or failure. I would like to lose 150-200 lbs and bypass seemed like my best option.

I posted on this EXACT question 2 days ago: Now, with greater experience, and most than 1 year post-op, I feel I can elaborate a bit more. I would STRONGLY advise against drinking ANY alcohol so early after surgery!!!!! Alcohol dehydrates your body. At the moment, your everyday battle is staying hydrated and allowing your surgical site to heal. The lime in the margarita will likely irritate your stomach lining, causing great discomfort. The alcohol will get you drunk VERY fast in VERY small quantities, and you will not be in good control of your decision making regarding other foods, which could lead you to make dangerous decisions around what is safe to eat so early on. Feel free to go out with your friends, but take on the role of designated driver (if you don't want them to know WHY you're not drinking), or just tell them you are staying away from alcohol for a while because it conflicts with some meds or supplements you're taking. Of course that all assumes they don't know about your surgery. If they know, tell them the truth! Your surgeon and nutritionist have strongly advised....NO DRINKING for min. 6 months post-op. You surgeon may not have spelled that out to you (though hopefully it was discussed). The physical effects of alcohol are bad, but the psychological possibilities of developing a new dependency or addiction (alcohol vs food) are very real and serious and worse than the hangover and illness the booze might temporarily cause you. Even if the addiction part is not "in play" here, the possibility of your having less control of your decision regarding food at the concert is still very real if you've been drinking. You really can't afford to slip up and eat the wrong thing this early post-op. It could have serious repercussions and land you in the hospital with a leak or complication you could have easily avoided. You made a smart choice with this surgery. Keep up the good choices and stay away from alcohol until you're better healed and in a more normal eating/drinking routine.

Hi All, I'm scheduled to have my revision surgery on August 7, 2015. I have Dr. Rabkin. I'm traveling alone across country from CT to CA. HELP! Anyone can relate? What do I do? Strange city. No one to run to the pharmacy for me. Have to stay 4-5 days in hospital. Will be open, not laparoscopic. Argh. What about complications? What if I have a meltdown? Having the hardest time finding an affordable place to stay, Dr's office of no help. Any advice, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks NurseSmart

Cat, Welcome and congrats! One thing I will say is you may still be on pain meds at that point so you will not be able to drive. I would plan for the following week. Also, that will give you time if you have complications. I did and there was no way I could go back in two weeks. Also, I am Sr. HR person with my company and a lot of companies have medical leave options if you are not yet qualified for FMLA. I had mine at 6 months. I know you are excited to have your surgery but make sure you plan for complications and contingency plans if you maybe not reacting well to the surgery. I did not tell really anyone at work, not even my manager. However, she did see my return to work note from the bariatric center.

Approval went through and I finally have a date. It's going to be a little complicated because my hubsband will be away and I have to travel by myself to have my surgery. Thanks goodness I have good friends to help with kids and it may be more relaxing recovering in a hotel for a couple days. The only downside is that I have to tell more people than I origionally wanted to. I'm so excited to have this done. I start pre-op diet monday!!

That's really good to hear... And congrats on the weight loss!! I know how good you must feel I am leaning toward the plication as well. From everything I read, it's seems to minimize complications with the band; slipping, erosion, fills, etc. And I'm so glad to hear that you were back to work within a week. I did very well when I had my hysterectomy, so I expect the recovery on this will also go smoothly. Have you had any fills? If so, how many.....how often? Thanks for your input.