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Please don't take this the wrong way, but if there's one thing you'll here on this site perhaps more than any other it's this: don't compare yourself to others. There's nothing good that can come of it. Even if you found someone that was your exact same starting weight, height, and even had surgery the same day, there are still way too many other variables that could impact your progression. Just some examples: age, physical fitness, %body fat, basal metabolism, diet, bougie size, surgical complications, etc. Honestly, it sounds like you're doing fine. If you're not happy with your loss so far, talk with your bariatric team. They may have suggestions for you such as increasing the amount and type of exercise and/or changes to your diet. Best of luck!

Does anyone else have a runny nose all the time? My surgery was 18 months ago, and I have had a runny nose ever since. I'm constantly blowing my nose. I had to switch to using a microfiber towel, because it get sore from using tissue. It's more troublesome after I had a very minor surgery on my voice. There were some complications, and I needed a second surgery. Now I can't sing or even speak properly because of constant goop in my voice. I'm always having to clear my throat. Though I wasn't having this problem before the voice surgery, I'm wondering if they're somehow connected. Much of the joy in my life comes from singing, so I really need to get back to it. I'm working with a great voice coach, but it's taking a long, long time.

Anyone have MS and get sleeve surgery? Any problems and/or complications?

I was self pay for gastric bypass and it was only $17k. That was for everything, surgeon, anesthesia, hospital stay, and insurance in case I end up with complications that I have to be seen for. It also covered all my pre and post op appointments & consultations. Oregon needs to get their **** together!!

I have Sjogren's Syndrome. Mine is moderate, mainly causing a lack of moisture in my mouth, sinuses, throat, and eyes. I take OTC guaifenesin (generic Mucinex) to help thin down the mucus in my throat. I had the sleeve on 9-1 and have had "the foamies" more than I have ever had. Often after I drink a protein shake. "Foamies" is such an accurate description! If I miss even one day of not taking the guaifenesin I get this awful "plug" of slimy mucus in my throat that basically chokes me until I can get it up and get rid of it. I have had this problem for years, finally I went to an ear, nose, and throat dr that correctly diagnosed my problem and put me on guaifenesin. This is not medical advice, just my experience. Maybe finding a different kind of doctor would help, as it did with me. Best wishes to you. Sjögren's is a systemic autoimmune disease that affects the entire body. Along with symptoms of extensive dryness, other serious complications include profound fatigue, chronic pain, major organ involvement, neuropathies and lymphomas.

A bypass is usually revised to a sleeve if the bypass fails: weight gain, unmanageable vitamin malabsorption issues, excessive dumping complications,... Much like a sleeve can be revised to bypass because of weight gain, GERD, etc, As others have said, any weight loss surgery can fail if you don't make permanent changes to how, what & why you eat. Post surgical benefits like loss of appetite & your restriction don’t last. They should help you to kick start your weight loss & give you time to assess your eating & establish new eating habits. Sounds like you relied on the side effects of your bypass to influence what you ate. I’d expect your bypass would have failed sooner if you didn’t experience dumping (50-60% don’t with bypass). You mentioned your tummy has stretched. It does because it is a muscle & stretches & contracts. Can’t believe any doctor would say it can’t. Consistently eating larger portions will cause it to stretch more & contract less. But is your tummy as large as it was before you had either surgery or about the size of someone who never had a weight issue? The success you have with either surgery is dependent upon you, with consideration of any complications you may have of course. We all have our reasons for choosing the surgery we did & the effort we put in to make changes are reflected in the success we have or didn’t have. Excluding the life changes that can sometimes sabotage our intentions. I chose sleeve because of the lower risk of malabsorption & dumping. I lost all my weight & more. I don’t eat like friends & family who carry weight. I don’t eat exactly like friends & family who never carried weight either. I have to work a little harder & listen more carefully to my body (what it needs, how it reacts, etc.) because it’s easier for me to gain weight. I’m sorry you are unhappy with your revision.

When you have an unusual situation such as you have, I have found it useful to get second and even third opinions. A general or general GI surgeon may not have that much experience with bariatric patients, and a strict bariatric surgeon may not have run into this type of problem before (though is more likely to be familiar with such complications. Is this a problem with something that's odd about you, or was there something odd about the way the bypass revision was done - good to get a fresh set of bariatric eyes on that to check. Is it a hiatal hernia - some bariatric surgeons have a hard time dealing with them, (and some don't...) and likewise some general surgeons may have a hard time dealing with that in a bariatric patient. A regional cancer center with a GI department can be a good place to consult, as they tend to have experience with a broader set of unusual cases, and they also usually have an associated bariatric department. I ran into an odd cancer situation a few years ago (thankfully fairly minor and early), such that even a major center might see one or two per year, and was a subject of one of the department's monthly meeting where the doctors all get together and discuss their "interesting" patients and brainstorm different approaches to the problem. You may need that level of "interest" to solve your problem hopefully not,) but it's good to be able to tap into that level of resource if it's needed. Good luck in finding a solution...

This happened to me. I was self pay, and then got a bill months later for a crazy amount of money. I called my surgeon's office and asked if there were complications I didn't know about because of the insane bill I got. The PA there looked into it and got livid when she realized the hospital was billing me again, and intervened. It basically was a case of the hospital doing one thing, and not being synched up with the surgeon and such. Mine got sorted out pretty quickly when the surgeon's office got involved, but it was still a good month or so like others mentioned. I was really stressed out about it all at the time.

Hello, I’m 10 days post op. My question is about the cost of the surgery. Are there any self-pay patients out there? I began this process in January of this year. Started with my local hospital and was given a quote of $35,000 which is due to the pre-op requirements such as psych eval, endoscopy, sleep study, etc. I then reached out to a bariatric center about 5 hours away and they quoted me $25,000 and didn’t require the same pre-op items. I went with this program because the doctor has been doing bariatric surgeries for over 25 years. I prepaid the surgeon $4400 and the hospital said I needed to prepay $19,100. A week after getting home, I am now getting billed an additional $31,000. More than double my quote. They told me those quotes are only estimates and that the cost of the surgery can vary greatly based on complications. The thing is, I had no complications and even was released a day early. They are sending it to the higher ups for them to “review”. This whole thing has been stressful and affecting my recovery. I wouldn’t have had the surgery if I knew it was going to cost me over $54,000 because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Just looking for some prices to compare to. I’m in Oregon Thanks!

I ended up waiting almost two years from when I first reached out to my center, because of concerns about complications if I went a self pay route. I could for sure have written a check but I wanted the additional peace of mind. I was really annoyed at first about the waiting period and hoops I had to jump through to get qualified but in retrospect I’m glad I had them. I ended up losing weight prior to surgery, which helped me get ready for the lifestyle change and be more prepared for recovery, and I had enough time to be certain over and over that I was making the right call. I understand once a decision is made that it is frustrating to wait, but honestly if you have the option to get insurance to pay I’d always go that route. Also glad I didn’t fork out the cash for self pay because 2 years post op I ended up using those funds for skin removal, haha.

I live alone, hundreds of miles from any family, and I didn’t tell anyone about my surgery other than health care professionals. I really didn’t have any issues. I took a taxi to the hospital and hired a home health care aid to take me home. The hospital said they wouldn’t allow me to take a taxi/Uber home but they didn’t check and I totally could have, but the home health care aid didn’t cost much more than a taxi and she picked up my prescriptions and brought my bag in the house, so that was good. Plus, I had no idea how well or poorly I would be feeling when I got discharged, so it was nice to have that peace of mind. I had surgery on a Thursday, took the next week off of work, and went back the following Monday. I could have gone back much sooner, but it was good to have the week off so I could get used to my new situation (like having to sip tiny amounts to stay hydrated and get protein). I didn’t need any help taking care of myself. I didn’t have any pain by the time I got home. I was a little tired but functional. If I recall correctly, I wasn’t allowed to lift more than 20 pounds for the first 6 weeks, but I didn’t have any need to do so. I think my easy recovery was pretty typical of most WLS patients these days, but there’s always a chance you’ll have complications, so it’s a good idea to have a contingency plan in case you do need help.

Newbie here Gastric Bypass surgery scheduled for Wednesday 9/21. I’m on day 2 of the clear liquid diet and todays been harder then yesterday. I woke up with a migraine and it won’t go away! I can only have plain water, apple juice, protein2O, jello, popsicles and low sodium chicken broth to drink/eat and the chicken broth doesn’t wanna stay down. I also only told certain family members and someone got lose lips decided it was her job to tell everyone and there mother so I have a lot of negative opinions being voiced to me. Someone even contacted my fiancé with a long list of complications and all the stuff that can go wrong and how there uncles wife’s sisters daughters cousin died from the surgery and now he’s even more scared something is going to happen to me! I guess it’s just the pre-surgery craziness 🤦‍♀️

Hello all I thought I’d put my first post up to encourage others as I’m definitely a snail not a hare with weight loss, but getting there all the same. I had lapband surely nearly 15 years ago. Lost nothing. Didn’t work for me at all. Felt like a failure. Saved up again and decided to have the lapband removed and a bypass. Wasn’t that hopeful due to my previous experience but was desperate. Weighed 310 pounds and BMI 45. Surgery was fine with no complications. However I only lost a couple of pounds each week for the first few weeks. On about 500-600 calories a day. As food increases to about 800 calories at week 6, the slow but steady weight loss continued of 1 to 2 pounds a week. About six month stage I was light enough to join a gym. This made a huge difference to my mental health and energy. I took it slow but went three times a week. I was now on about 1000 calories a day and losing (you guessed it) 1 to 2 pounds a week. Sometimes I would lose 4 pounds a week but then nothing the week after. I didn’t really stall at all. I saw other people posting phenomenal weekly weight loss numbers. Not me! So here I am a year out and I’m eating about 1200 calories a day and losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. Lost over 100 pounds so far and feel fine plodding on as I am. So my advice is, keep tracking food, when you can try exercising, and don’t worry if your weight loss is steady like mine. You get there just the same. And, I’ve never felt better!

If you didn’t have an insurance option I would 100% say go pay for it! A year out now and I only wish I did this sooner. It is worth its weight in GOLD. That being said, I did wait for my surgery (& gained a few LBs) so insurance would cover it, mostly because I was terrified of the bills in the event there was a complication. I think it also depends on your timing in life, if there is something pushing you to get it now, that may be another factor in the pay column- I was moving cross country and couldn’t have waited another year. I think you will be happy in the long run either way & either way you will have this for the rest of your life. Good luck!!

It is definitely a much more complicated surgery and you have to find a surgeon who has done numerous ones. They will essentially undo the GB and make it a sleeve and then DS. It takes about 3-4 hrs and an overnight stay. But, it can absolutely be done

Hello! I am just under 6 months post op. My advise: start practicing changes PRE-OP. For example: PRE-OP I started Counted calories and logged everything (lost weight as a bonus). Stopped drinking soda (even tho I only drank diet). Stopped drinking with my meals. I feel like all these little things made the transition easier post-op. As far as being a student, I personally think you will be fine in 3 weeks. Of course everyone is different so take it with a grain of salt. I had no complications or any issues after surgery. (Luckyyy and thankful) I took a month off of work but ended up coming back at 3 weeks. I did get tired SUPER fast the first few days but after that I was pretty much back to normal. Good luck on your journey, it is SO WORTH IT!

I know it’s so hard, especially this early. Just remember, it feels really long and hard, but in the grand scheme of things, the 1-2 months of not being able to eat solid foods is actually a really short time compared to the rest of your life. Try to keep in mind all the reasons you’re doing this (health, confidence, role model for your kids, whatever) and keep that as your motivator. It’s so important to follow the diet restrictions right now, it is the healthiest and best way to heal your stomach to be able to get to that next goal. The more you fight it, the harder and longer it will be. And the more complications and pain you can have. You got this, you can do it, and you’ll be so happy you did, I promise!

Great words from all I am a nurse also and it took many years to get me to decide i needed wls. Mostly due to all the complications I had seen as a nurse. On august 31 2022 I had VGS. It was a rough go the first few days but I am feeling much better. Thanks for all your comments it helps alot to read about how they are progressing.

Hi there, it has been wonderful to read all of the stories here. I'm a 39-year old mother of three from Finland and have had RYGB 17 days ago. Here surgeons actually operate more RYGB than SG (contrary to US), and although I was set on SG before when I decided on needing the surgery, the surgeon did convince me with RYGB suiting me better in the end (and she is the surgeon in Finland who gets referred with the most difficult cases and operates a lot both in University hospital as well a privately, so I just ended up trusting her expertise). I don't know anyone personally who has had the surgery so nobody to really have discussions with about the downs (ups is another matter as I do have a family but obviously not all of the NSV's (a new term I learned today, yay) can be comprehended by someone who really has never been there. I started my journey with the decision in May, first appointment at the clinic June 2nd weighing 352 lb (160kg, I'm 5'10 tall so BMI about 50 at this point), 11 weeks later August 10th had a meeting with the surgeon and internist for approval (weighing 320 lb), had to have ECG and gastroscopy due to medical history to be approved, and the surgery was done 26th of August so jyst over two weeks ago. My weight that day was 317 lb (143,8kg), and currently it is 301 lb (136,6kg). Here in Finland we have the possibility to get the operation through regular healthcare system if we fullfil the criteria (BMI over 35 with obesity related diseases or BMI over 40 plus you need to have had experience before atleast of 6 months of conservative weight loss (can be from the past, does not need to be just then) and you need to lose 8% of your weight prior to surgery with atleast 3-4 weeks vlcd to make sure liver loses its fat to make surgery less risky). I obviously fullfilled the criteria and was referred to the process, but unfortunately due to Covid having resulted in so many cancellations of elective surgeries, the waiting time for surgery was more than a year in every University hospital (we have 5, so I called everyone of them). Here we have this wonderful thing, called progressive taxation which ensures that people who make decent money, don't really get to keep more than 50% of my paycheck so having good healthcare and free education (like University is free, free school meals up until you're 18) comes with a prize tag that we just have had to accept, so obviously I would have preferred to get the surgery for that regular prize (which would have been probably around 300 euros in total with the doctor's pre visits and the hospital days). However I quickly decided, and my hubby agreed, that waiting for a year, maybe even two, was too long as my body had gone through so much already last year. I was worried that too long of a wait would result in me yoyoing with my weight and more complications could have a really bad impact on my long term health. So, I ended going to a private hospital in Finland which in overall was a good experience, and I was able to go home the next day as planned. Tried to go to work 3 days later, but had to go back home after a couple of hours and just work from home the amount I was able to. After leaving the hospital I only took a couple of acetaminophens a day, which I found quite surprising. A week later I was already working regularly normal hours (mostly a desk job, no heavy lifting). No vomiting but a couple of times now that after two weeks I was allowed to have crisp bread (and somehow thought it was a good idea to make it less dry by combining it with cream cheese) have I had it block the stoma or just become just a big clump inside the pouch. Not a pleasent feeling, and tried to drink a bit, and I could feel the fluid staying in the esophagus so just waited it out... Thing I find most annoying is that I have never been a person to drink my calories, not a soup person, especially pureed soups are not at all my thing. Vlcd with the shakes was already a 5 week misery and the the liquid and pureed food phase now after surgery. I already hate all the things I previously used to like such as protein puddings and smoothies. I like the textures of differents foods, fresh fruits and vegetables and can't have most of them in a long time. I have started to chew foods like sweet paprika in my mouth to get the experience and then spit it out to not cause problems. I had no idea I would grow such a disgust (it really is like a physical feeling of nausea) towards so many liquid and pureed foods so quickly.. Feels like right now, at this point when I really don't have any of the NSV's etc effects yet, that it is quite hard to stay in positive at times when the physical nausea, inability to join the family dinners etc. makes you feel down. Maybe atleast some of you understand where I'm coming from, some support would be encouraging. At least reading threads about different topics related to WLS is already something to keep my mind of negativity. Final note; WLS aka weight loss surgery sounds so much more upbeat than our translation in Finnish which is Lihavuusleikkaus (direct translation to Englush for it is Obesity surgery). It sort of has the emphasis on the obesity rather than what it aims to do. Person who came up with the terminology must not have been obese themselves... For anyone who actually read the whole post, thank you, I appreciate it! Sent from my AC2003 using BariatricPal mobile app

Has anyone experience sleeve leakage 6 months to a year after surgery?

I am a year and a half out and I sorta wish I had gone with the bypass too. Not cause of any complications, just cause I didn’t lose as much as I had hoped and I wonder if the grass would’ve been greener on the other side. I chose sleeve because I am on medications though and have to remind myself that I may have issues with that had I chosen differently. I think it’s pretty natural to wonder if things could have been better if we had made a different choice but who knows. I have to think that everything happens for some reason. That’s what makes me feel a little better about it.

I’m happy that you didn’t experience any nausea or pain. I’ve asked GOD to cover me and I’ve also prayed for no complications, nausea, or pain as well. It’s getting closer for me. My surgery date is Monday September 26. Not too sure how to feel right now

Did you have any complications from your surgery or post op? I'm wondering if the juice itself will cause any issues with my lungs while under anesthesia. When I googled about affects on your lungs during anesthesia I got a little concerned that I couldn't even vape 0 nicotine.

This will be my 15th or 16th actual surgery, including open heart surgery in 2020. I'm always nervous about them and I think that's healthy. It's perfectly normal to wonder if you'll get the results you are hoping for, to be concerned about how much pain you'll have and how your life might change, and to be concerned about potential complications. The way I have always coped is to learn as much as I can about the surgery in question. Regarding my bariatric surgery, I know my specific risk factors and how to minimize those risks. I have detailed plans for every step of the recovery process, including how I'll eat, and how I'll deal with pain or complications. I know that stalls are a normal part of the process and that scales lie. I know that what really matters is how I feel. I know exactly why I want the surgery and how my life will improve as I lose weight. I have very specific goals related to % body fat loss and rewards planned as I progress. I short, I have done everything I can to mentally and physically prepare myself for this surgery. This preparation reassures me that this is the right choice and makes be feel in control, which goes a long way toward alleviating the fear.

Surgery at IUCPQ, Québec City. Pré -op pounds was 284 pounds. 28/02/2022 : I passe trough 2 weeks of liquid diet. Lost 12 pounds. 14/03/2022 Steeve gastrectomy by Dr. Laurent Berthiot: weight surgery Day : 272 pounds.one Day surgery. Good recuperation without complications. Today, i am feeling really great. A lot easier for every moove I make. I am founding the real me that i knew so many years ago. So i've started at 284 pounds and today i have lost 75 pounds, so proud of me! I am meeting the person I was 9 years ago, i am loving myself more every day! My objective premier is to throw out of me 100 pounds Who hurt me so much! Sent from my SM-G975W using BariatricPal mobile app