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Sampathak, I’m in your same situation. BMI is 30. I’ve discussed this with two US docs and they both declined me because I do not have the required complications e.g. diabetes etc... in addition to 30 BMI. One surgeon told me that the risk involved in surgery would not be worth it & it would not be ethical for a surgeon to medically intervene when the “issue could be solved through diet & exercise .” I was super bummed. Not sure why he’s assume I had not exhausted every effort during my entire life to lose the weight. I hope others chime in & tell us about their experiences. I’ve read on the forums that the Mexico-based docs do conduct surgery for lower BMIs.

Hello Everyone, I’ve been researching and planning for months and just still very scared to make that final step of booking the surgery. Please anyone who has gone through these fears and then had the surgery, please give me some input! I know I want to do this I’m just scared of the possible complications.

I agree with @Sydney7. I just arrived home yesterday after having my procedure at OCC on 12/27. I'm not saying other surgeons are not qualified or other facilities are not good, I am simply speaking on my personal experience. That experience is streamlined from the start, which I would imagine is similar to experiences at other facilities. The thing I liked about OCC was there were no "go-between" liaisons or coordinators. Everyone you dealt with worked for the clinic, with the exception of the hotel staff at the Marriott. The concierge driver who picked us up in San Diego was extremely polite and eager to help in any way possible. He seemed genuinely interested in why we chose OCC and spoke to his observance of other patients' experiences. He also gave many good tips on local sights, etc. My first impression of the clinic was also how extremely clean it was. It is also very modern and comfortable. The front desk staff were so nice and called me by my first name the second I walked in the door. Some of my long-time drs office staff at home still don't do this! The nutritionist was very encouraging and excited that I met my "surgery weight goal" the day before surgery. She went over post-op nutrition instructions in more detail and answered any questions I had. Then I had blood work and an EKG. All staff members were very pleasant, and their English was very clear and easy to understand. This is important when discussing your health and needing to be clear on all instructions! The next day I was back in by 7 a.m. and was first up for surgery. I fell asleep very quickly after entering the OR, but did have two conversations with Dr. Ortiz and other surgical staff after waking and discussing how I was feeling. The nursing staff were diligent throughout the night and erred on the side of caution whenever anything was slightly less than ideal (oxygen level a little low? suck on your spirometer more often!) - come in with slightly more than average amount of usual health problems - stay longer in the morning to be cleared by internist before going back to hotel! Return the next day for leak test - no leaks, but slightly slower swallow time/gurgling? bend over for your steroid injection to help reduce swelling and open up that GI tract more! All after discussing your options, of course. I was sent home with a ton of paperwork and an id card with a link to my online medical record. I am told to expect continuing interaction as part of aftercare so they can monitor my progress. There were about 7-8 patients there per day, from what I could tell, each with their companions. As mentioned by Sydney, some of the companions were former patients as well. The man who took the shuttle back to the airport with us was speaking to his friend on the phone during the trip (yay) and apparently the friend and his wife had recommended this man. Word of mouth really is the best advertising. We flew first class to San Diego because I have serious chronic back and neck pain. First class wasn't all I had anticipated, but even with the cost of those tickets, the cost of surgery at OCC {which is not the lowest in the TJ area}, and all other related travel/surgery expenses, I still saved a few thousand over what I would have spent on surgery at a nearby facility - just for surgery locally. And I still have complication insurance for 175 more days in case, heaven forbid, something does go wrong, in which case I can be treated locally and it will be covered by my plan. I had a really good experience at OCC and with Dr. Ortiz and the rest of his staff. I am also happy for others who have had similar experiences with other surgeons/facilities. I think options are important. I'm happy to try to help anyone still in the research process, if I can. Thanks and Happy New Year!

Yes! I’m terrified too. I’m on January 17, and I’ve given myself a full blown anxiety disorder because of my fear of doing it. But I know it has to be done if I want to live a long and healthy life. I’ve read numerous research studies about anaesthesia and it’s safety and it is very safe. I’m not too scared about that part of it, it’s more about the unknowns. Like, what will my new stomach be like? What can I tolerate, food and fluid wise? Will I have any serious complications etc etc. I think it’s extremely normal to feel scared and anxious, and second guess our decisions. If you’re really struggling, there’s no harm in considering pushing your date back and perhaps seeking some counsel from your surgeon or a therapist. I have not read about a single person regretting their decision for WLS and I think that’s what’s keeping me going. Even despite some people having a tougher time than others, they still say they don’t regret surgery. Try to focus on all the ways the surgery will help you, but also acknowledge your fears. This too shall pass! All the best on your journey

I stopped my opiates about 40 hours after surgery. I thought Tylenol was a waste of time as pre-surgery it never seemed to help, but they put it in IV and it did keep the edge off the pain as I got us and walking. Had the final one three days post surgery - I had open surgery (8 inch incision, breast bone to navel, plus rib cage cracked open, to clear up some gastric band complications. So I also had slow local anasthetic dripping into the wound for 48 hours which was great. i was keen to get off the heavy drugs - to avoid the fuzzy head and especially the nausea associated with them. All I can say, my friend, is every day gets better, and now is an important time to focus on you - water sips in, protein in, and your new life looking forward...

I chose the sleeve for multiple reasons... mainly because it’s basically helping with Portion Control which is a problem I fought before I had surgery. Mainly because the RNY requires Vitamins to be taken everyday for the rest of your life and there are a lot of long term health risks associated with it. But with every surgery there are potential complications and your surgeon will go over it with you before they proceed. I’ve never had a problem with GERD Or acid reflux so I was a good candidate for the sleeve. My sister in law got the RNY and she’s had dumping multiple times this past year. She says it’s the worst feeling ever.

Hiya, I have joined yesterday. I'm Jess but also go by Chandni for years so choose either I am 38 years young from Germany, been overweight forever (since I was a kid) and I had my first consultation and information meeting 1.5 weeks ago. I was told I can do my surgery basically now if my insurance agrees to pay it. I still have to get all the paperwork done, but couldn't start during the holidays. Now that the new year is here I'll be able to start. My surgeon wants me to do the Bypass, because of its immediate effects on diabetes (wouldn't it be great not to have all these ghastly meds anymore?) and because it's apparently most effective. With a BMI of 61.6, it's high noon (Any other Overwatchler here hearing that in McCree's voice?). I am scared and nervous about the general anaesthesia and complications during surgery, but I can't do this alone, I need this and am looking forward to the change from 'can't stand for 3 minutes without pain and not take care of herself properly' to a normal life.

I went to a walkin clinic today because two of my incisions looked red around the outside and found out incisions were infected so now I'm taking antibiotics, other than that the pain isn't terrible, I've been walking quite a lot which is helping get the gas that is left from surgery. Hopefully everything continues to improve and I get my infection cleared up and don't have any kind of other complications, fingers crossed! Hope everyone has a Happy New Year! 🎉🎊🎉🎊

I have never regretted my decision. Sleeved 28 July 2027. Toughest time was the preop diet. I have had a complication free recovery and transitioned through diet phases moderately easily. Had a period where I just couldn't eat much due to completely being turned off food. All good down. I am still earring what I can eat or not eat. My stomach tells me very quickly if u eat something that I am no longer able to tolerate. Chinese food for example.

@Losingit2018 Thanks! I started in early May of this year. I was at your point or close to it--287 and 5'4" -- don't know what that BMI equates to...I decided that I would see if I could handle changing food relationships/behaviors and did a trial run of eating like an RNY person from the point of surgery to 1 year out. I eat way more volume now, but in the early days it was truly like the volumes of a WLS patient. I follow the plan set by my surgeon and RD. I don't have any choice. My insurance requires that I track everything in a daily food log and weigh often, and have my appts with the RD every month without skipping them. So compliance is a bit easier having the sword of Damocles looming over your head. (Not that there haven't been food funerals and poor choices--even this Christmas! I'm up 6lbs from my lowest weight. I should change my stats, and will if I don't make it back to my recorded weight by appointment time next week! I'm just trying to be optimistic! The risk is small in comparison to the reward! Don't read too many "complications" threads! They'll scare you spitless!!!!

Only doctors can point you to right direction.... check with yours pal.. and I wish there is no complications.. best of luck

you're going to be hard pressed to find a surgeon willing (or capable) of doing that. They have to do a complete takedown of the RNY first - which, as I understand, is a pretty complicated surgery - and something they do only if the patient has severe medical problems with it that can't be resolved any other way. They would never do that because someone "didn't lose enough weight". Besides, there is nothing wrong with losing 40 lbs in four months. What exactly were you expecting to lose?

"The patient is a 39 year-old woman who initially underwent laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in 2001. A revision was then performed in 2003 for suboptimal weight loss, where the gastric pouch was revised and a Silastic band was placed to the distal gastric pouch. She then underwent revision to a distal gastric bypass. She developed symptoms of reflux and also had weight recidivism. Endoscopy demonstrated stenosis of the distal gastric pouch at the location of the Silastic band. She was taken to the operating room for conversion sleeve gastrectomy, removal of the Silastic band, and hiatal hernia repair. " None of this applies to the OP. Again...No. To remedy severe complications experienced with other weight loss surgeries...it's a rare possible option. For simple lack of weight loss, it is accurate to say that there is no surgeon alive who would convert RNY to sleeve. So again, No. Just No.

I' still trying to figure out how to use this forum lol...When you get a free moment can you let me know how your experience went and if you had an concerns or complications. Thank you. You can message me or quote.

The goal should be healthy at whatever that weight might be for you. Here is my issue with statistics. Per my surgeon's office : St Luke's for the state Idaho follow patients for five years at each check up. The problem is that many bariatric patients stop coming to follow up appointments. Surgeons offices see a drop off of participants in the first to second year. St. Luke's is still required to send in the statistic even when they know for fact they are not accurate. These are factored into the national average. St lukes also says its normal to gain around fifteen after goal. Your body naturally wants to settle at a certain weight. I don't judge people that have lost 100% of weight, Lost below the norm or have weight gain. I also don't judge " if your body does not want to put up with a diet and calorie restriction" Things that I see when I talk to local patient in my area: (not saying all these issues will cause weight gain either) Gains can be small or a major for many reasons...Healthy issues, wrong type of surgery for the individual, not properly screened by the mental health process, muscle mass gain, eating/exercise disorders, mobility issues, hormone issues, Pregnancies, complications from surgery and going back to poor choices/behaviors (I'm sure I missed more examples) Personally, I never wanted to be considered a statist in this process. Each of us have different goals. it's a choice of what weight makes you comfortable for goal and maintenance. I hate the word failure. It might be you cannot lose weight due to the examples listed above. Could be a set back gain. What my life looks like at 3.7 years out for life I live on protein, sugar substitute, dairy,vegetables, healthy carbs and fruit.( I eat all food groups) At goal I indulge once in a while. When I have a weight gain. I go back to basics and get back down to where I am comfortable. Maintaining for me is chasing the same 10 to 15 pounds.Weight loss is slow.

I had my surgery on December 28, two days ago. I had a lot of pain when I woke up. Mostly gas pain all over my belly, which is tolerable, but also a stabbing, searing pain just under my left breast. After having another upper G.I. and a CT scan to rule out hernias or other complications, it seems that the source of my pain is that the blood flow to my spleen was cut during surgery. My surgeon says it’s not uncommon, and just means it will take a few days longer for the pain to go away. It hurts so much, though, I am on around-the-clock pain meds and muscle relaxers. I just feel awful. 😪

Thank goodness! I've finally scheduled my surgery for 5 weeks from now so I've been doing some more detailed research on what to expect post-op and all I keep finding are "omg I'm dying/I've had 87 complications/kill me please' horror stories!! THANK YOU!

I would really appreciate if anyone who has Dr. lutfi as their surgeon can message me any info about the process and any complications they may have had. Thank you so much.

I was 373 lbs at drs. visit and 352 lbs on day of surgery. I didn't have any complications other than really bad nausea immediately after surgery that triggered vomiting (they kept me in recovery an extra 3 hours because of it and kept me an extra 1/2 day at hosp for observation), but that was all over in a day Six months out today and I've lost 92 since surgery (113 since 1st dr. visit).

"A Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases study looked at how successful gastric sleeve surgery was at helping patients keep weight off for an extended period. It looked at the results of patients who had the surgery five years ago. Things such as total weight loss, how quickly weight was lost, quality of life and complications were all evaluated. The average amount of excess weight loss for those studied in this professional study was 61.5% after just one year and 61.1% after just two years. The average for all five years for 57.4 percent (pretty close to the expected weight loss surgeons usually tell patients at their consultation)." Say you're a 250 pound woman who should be a 150 pound woman. Statistically, with sleeve....you'll lose 61 pounds. You'll end up being a 189 pound woman 18 months after sleeve. After five years...you'll gain a bit back....and end up being around 193 pounds. These are the median results for this surgery. You could do a little better than 50% of the people who've had the surgery, and you could do a little worse. But for the most part....if you start at 250, 5 years later, you'll end up around 193. Still, a really good, life impacting reduction that might not make you "skinny", but will definitely improve your health and quality of life. Sounds good to me.

This is my first WLS. I have had other stomach surgeries though. So mine was a bit more complicated.

Sorry you are having this complication. Hang in there.

I'm around 350lbs with a very high BMI and due surgery on 12th. My surgeon isn't worried about complications as long as I stick to the preop diet to reduce my liver size. I don't smoke but he has told me he won't do surgery on someone who does. If you can stop it would be amazing but, unless your surgeon says otherwise, you will be fine. At the end of the day they are doing our surgeries and changing our lives. You need to trust them. You'll be fine. Try not to stress and look forward to it. I'm half petrified but so excited I can't explain. I'm going to have a good life with this and stop my family and friends worrying about putting me in an early grave. Sorry for being a bit morbid but it's true lol. Honestly my one dream to come from this is to go to the beach and wear a bikini. That's it. Something I never would have dreamed up until now! Look to the positives x Sent from my Moto G (5) using BariatricPal mobile app

I was 400 at my highest, 350 at my first appointment and then 295 on my day of surgery, so I'm probably not the best example, but I figure if the doctor's aren't too concerned and are going through with the surgery, then they must believe you won't be at higher risk of complications.

I'm only 9 months post op. I'm going through one of my longest stalls at the moment. My stats are in my signature thingy. Just in case you were curious but I'm happy I had the RNY done. I currently haven't had any complications with it. I can run on the treadmill and go on that stair machine, which is something I never did before. I'm currently in a study that my surgeon is doing. The last part of the study happens to be when I'll be a year post op. I don't regret this surgery. Not one bit and I'd do it again if it was humanly possible. 🙂 Best wishes on your upcoming surgery and welcome aboard. Hw-273 Sw-226 CW-147 GW-130 Size- 4 or 6, Small in sweats. Medium in shirts. depends on how it's cut or made. Bra Size- 38D Surgery Date- April 26th, 2017 RNY "Only those who try will become" FFX