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Emory Bariatrics was awesome for me. I had Dr. Jamil Stetler and had little pain and zero complications. I had insurance through Cigna. First appt was the initial meeting with nutritionist and bloodwork and ekg. Beginning of the three month diet. I went for first appt on April 5 and was sleeved on August 4 after a 3 month supervised diet required by Cigna. Let me know if you need any other info. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Has anyone had any complications that put them back in the hospital? I developed a hematoma which became infected because of non action by my surgeon and have now been in the hospital for 10 days trying to knock out this infectiom

I had my surgery Monday afternoon and was discharged last night only because I'm a nurse and can care for my foley cath at home. That being a complication I don't even want to get into. But regardless everything I try to drink anything or a bite of Jello the pain is unbelievable. It doesn't matter the size either. Could be a small sip or literally enough to just coat my tongue. But the moment it hits my stomach I get intense sharp pains. And I have an unbelievable high tolerance for pain. Like I found out during pre-op testing I had fractured a rib but I don't remember doing it. Is anybody else have pain like this? And if so how long ones is last? This is just miserable. Thanks!!!! Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

If everything looks good at the hospital.... I would still check with your surgeon. But remember your body is still healing..... It's pulling energy from you to do that. You need to rest and keep yourself hydrated with Water and Protein shakes. Are you taking Vitamins? When my stomach refuse to take anymore Protein Shakes (burnout) my liquid vitamins kept me alive without complications. I'm eating mushy foods now so I put nonflavored Protein powder in my yogurt, hummus and some liquid drinks. Plus everything I eat has protein, fish, Beans, eggs, cheese and so forth. Stay safe. Sent from my SM-J700P using the BariatricPal App

Omg....OK here is the thing.complications can happen.Deaths are rare.very rare,they usually are the result of anaesthesia, blood clots or leaks.if your dr knows what he is doing and you do what you are supposed to do the chances of complications are reduced even more.everyone I know that have had the surgery are alive. Everyone that I have known that was non-compliant in general has passed away from complications from non was surgeries and illness.How many times have you seen a story where the person shouldn't be alive and they survived and yet perfectly healthy looking people just slump over dead without even a hint they are sick.If it's your time,its your time.

Today marks three months since I had my sleeve surgery on October 11 - Yom Kippur Day, and my personal day of atonement. I've come a long way since then, and since I began this effort in June of last year. I do not mind saying I started out with a considerable amount of trepidation, even fear of the surgery and the possible complications or side effects which could result. I am grateful to my Lord and God that none of that arose. It has been an exceptionally smooth process and recovery. As of this writing, I am down 125 lbs (I checked this morning), putting me at a svelte 356 lbs. When I lose another 9 lbs post surgery loss will equal pre surgery loss, and I am excited about that. Just last night I made my first professional presentation to a crowd since surgery, and that went extremely well. The attached picture was taken last night by a long time friend of mine (24 years) whose shop I was in for that presentation. I still have a ways to go, but I am well past the halfway point of the entire journey.

You can still have great success with sleeve and there are a lot of advantages to it. GERD is the main disadvantage, but it sounds like your test results have led your surgeon to believe that's not a huge risk for you. Personally, I never had GERD with any regularity pre-op except when I was at my heaviest weight and eating horribly. I do have GERD post-op, but it's nothing that can't be controlled with a PPI, so it hasn't been a big issue for me. I think it was worth the trade-offs to not have bypass. I'd rather take w PPI every day than have to deal with malabsorption leading to malnutrition or some sort of late-stage complication in the unused portion of my stomach or any of my joins. Just much less long-term risk associated with sleeve.

I did a high Protein liquid diet and lost 9 pounds in 13 days.I was sleeved with no complications on January 3 by Dr.Morton from Stanford. What diet are you doing? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

With the DS there are fewer complications with dumping than with the RNY. I honestly haven't had a single issue at a month out. At least not anything out of the ordinary. I've seen people get the sleeve and gain a lot of their weight back, and that terrified me. I'm only 20, and I wanted something that would work long term.

Hi my name is Tia. I'm 25 years old and I'm a mother of two beautiful children. My daughter, Emily, who is almost six..and my son, Bryan who is four years old. I got married August 14th, 2016 to the love of my life Cody. He is a daycare teacher & I work jewelry sales in walmart. We are both slowly making steps toward bettering every aspect of our lives. Just in November I recieved my high school diploma. Just last week we discovered Cody lost over one hundred pounds since we started this journey. I had lost 78 and it's slowly going back up. He started at 450lbs even & is now at 323.7. When we started this journey two years ago it was because I was diagnosed with Lupus. My endocrinologist told me that if I didn't lose weight in a quick yet healthy way, that the Lupus would complicate my life way sooner than it had to. My husband immediately jumped on board and we started hitting the trails almost every day. We are in smaller portions and we started noticing huge differences. I felt like I was becoming a better mother because I could get in the floor and play with my kids and not feel like I was dying. I had many plateaus but suddenly I hit this one that paste longer than usual. So I went and saw my pcp and she reffered me to a nutritionist to get some advice on the right things to eat. I followed Dr. Heathers steps to a T...still stuck. So then I start changing up my exercise..still stuck. So I go back to the doctor and she did some tests and her and the endocrinologist agreed that the Lupus had begun effecting my weight loss. Lupus in some weird way was litterally fighting me on this. I was heart broken...all that hard work to avoid surgery in the first place down the toilet. So here I am..six days before surgery scared to death and praying God gives me this second chance at life. I'm so scared I'm going to mess this up and I refuse for that to happen. My babies need me..my husband needs me. So I'm thinking this was a wise step..finding a support group and talking to people dealing with the same thing. This is who I am now♡ Sent from my SM-S820L using the BariatricPal App

She's basing her concerns on fears, not facts. There is a personal anecdote out there about someone dying from almost every medical or dental procedure, every medicine or vaccine, or simply from a fluke. The fact of risk isn't nearly as relevant as the probable chance of it. Modern-day WLS has a low rate of mortality or serious complication. You should absolutely understand those risks, but you also have to think about the risks of not finding a long-term solution to obesity. Insurance companies wouldn't provide coverage for WLS if there wasn't substantial proof of efficacy, and if the benefit didn't outweigh the risks. You could show your mom data from reliable sources about the low risk of the surgery and the effectiveness of it. Or just simply try to guide conversations off of surgery as much as possible and focus on other topics. You can't let the opinions of others stop you from doing what it prudent for your own life.

While it's possible, because there are serious complications and higher risk because of obesity, here's my experience. In my circle of friends, a person died several years after having some unspecified WLS. (No one really knew WHAT our friend had done, but the person who was with her at the facility was NOT impressed with the surgeon/facility.) She never followed through on the post-op diet plan, and had a number of health issues. She hated that she'd had the surgery, and said she had issues with food intolerance and other problems every since. However, she lost very little weight and like I said had lots of issues. While I haven't seen her medical records, as a nurse I can tell you that it's incredibly unlikely that she died as a result of the surgery, or even its complications. Another friend of mine lost his sister several years after a gastric bypass. He insists that her health was compromised by the surgery and she never really recovered from it. Again, I don't have access to her records, and didn't socialize with her so I don't even know the extent of her post-op issues, but it's very unlikely that the surgery caused the death that many years out. I personally know two people who almost died after lap band due to severe infections. I know three people (including one of the ones with the infections) who ate around their bands and were actually worse off from having it. So I had some friends who had deep concerns about my safety for the surgery. But the sleeve is not the bypass or the band. The bypass can result in some issues with nutrient absorption that can cause long-term health problems if not properly managed, and the lap bands are particularly prone to infection because it leaves a foreign body in the person. The sleeve has a very good safety record. There can be some long-lasting complications, like reflux, but severe complications are not common, and are usually manageable. Also, over time all of the WLS's have become safer because the surgeons learn more about what works and what doesn't. Once I educated them about the difference between the surgeries and the safety record of the sleeve, they quit trying to scare me out of it, and have been very supportive. My sister had the sleeve several years ago, and then had some complications with the skin surgeries. She also tends to go on and on at length about things with everyone who will listen, so everyone in the family has been subject to her monologues about food and diet and the surgery. So my parents had concerns about the complications, not realizing that her complications were actually from the skin surgeries. And they were worried that I would become "no fun" to have dinner with anymore. Once I cleared up the confusion about her surgical complications, and assured them that I have no reason to lecture anyone about what I'm eating or why or to police their eating, they dropped it. My dad also didn't understand why I couldn't just quit eating stuff that's bad for me, and exercise. He was able to drop his excess weight (about 50#) that way and keep it off, because he's a very disciplined sort. Once I showed him the new science about set point and the pressures and drives the hormone system does to keep the weight on, and the evidence that the surgery re-sets the set point and blocks many of the hormone drives, he understood why I was doing it. Bottom line, you are doing this for YOU, and for your health. If you and your team are good with the plan, ultimately that's all that matters. You can try to educate people, because many times their concerns or objections are based in things they've heard that aren't quite right. But don't let them get you off track or convince you not to do what you and your medical team have decided is in your best interests.

Your surgeon should be able to provide their own complication rates. Based on my surgeon's data that isn't even close to being true. Also not close to being true based on all the studies being read. Here are my doctors short and long term complication rates for sleeve and rny for reference.

Hello! My surgery is January 18th. My surgeon only requires a 1 week preop diet to shrink the liver. I wanted to be sure I did my part in helping to decrease complications and allow my self room for error and started a week early (Now I regret it! LOL). I am now on day 7. This diet is hard! However, not impossible. My real issue is that I've only lost like 3 pounds on this diet. In fact, one day my weight went up 1/2 a pound. I'm concerned that my liver may not be shrinking because I'm not losing a lot of weight. I have not cheated and actually thought I was doing great. Has anyone else not lost a significant amount of weight on the preop diet? I would have expected to be down at least 5 pounds by now. I'm also concerned with how it will be post op. If I'm not really losing weight on the preop liquid diet, will I even lose weight with my sleeve? I'm well aware that the sleeve is just a tool and I need to work my tool but I'm doing my part now and not seeing results. So many mixed emotions and concern.

Congrats! And best of luck to you on your surgery tomorrow. I ended up going with the sleeve instead of the bypass. I had weighed the pros and cons with my physician and I am overall very healthy with no other complications that he thought the sleeve would be best so that's what I went with. I'm 4 days post op and doing great, don't even need the pain meds they sent me home with and yesterday I got in about 60oz of fluids. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm 3 years and 4 months post op, down 130 pounds and I don't regret it for a minute. Not only was it a return to health and fitness, but I learned things about myself that I never knew and realized I was capable of so much more physically, mentally, emotionally - than I ever thought possible. It is a surgery, and there are some people who have complications, so it's not something to enter into lightheartedly. But, I would say that as far as functinoing "normally", I'm there. There are people, specifically at work, who have only known the "thin" post-surgery me and never knew me when I was obese. They have absolutely no indication that I had surgery based on social eating/drinking, etc. I mean, sure I eat way less than others, and I stay away from breads and Desserts, but someone without surgery on a diet would eat the same way in social settings.

Yes ! Rearranging the organs is a huge thing to do- my sister is a surgeon ( not a bari surgeon - she does rectal surgery gross I know ) but when I first talked with her about having it she was 100% set on my not having bypass for that reason there are so many more complications that can be met down the road when other health issues arise when your insides are all moved around- The hospital I had my surgery st is VERY pro bypass about 80% of their surgeries are bypass -- it's easier to loose - maintain the loss better ect/ despite all the information and pull from them for bypass I stuck to my guns and did the sleeve- Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Congratulations to all those 60 and over! I had my surgery May 19th, 2015 and am doing very well. My family was supportive but very concerned at first. I have been able to educate them on issues related to health, surgery and longevity. I have also plan the holiday meals for our family. They see me moving, exercising and running with my grandchildren, walking 8 to 13 miles, traveling more and they like my new electric sports Cadillac! I have released 100 lbs and looking for just 5 more. I live in Anchorage. Alaska and support groups are hard to find as a couple of the Bariatric Surgeons do not offer this service, and one surgeon who does offer support groups would not allow me to attend because I was not his patient! In Anchorage we now have a Bariatric Surgeon who has opened his doors to any and all who want to become a part of the monthly support group. I no longer take bp medications or pre-diabetic meds! Keep up the good work! Stay encouraged! This is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I did researched for several years before having the surgery and had absolutely no complications or pain after the surgery. By prayer and following my surgeon's directions and good common sense this has been a very successful. Much love and success to us all. Vickiebc

My surgeon asked me which procedure I wanted, so I natural went with the sleeve as it is the most popular. I was told that the sleeve is less invasive and has lower risk for complications. In addition I believe the recovery is alot quicker. I know the sleeve surgery is about an hour long, not sure if the bypass is just only 30mins longer. I know people who had each type if surgery, some succeeded some didn't. In all the one's who failed was because the had the same mindset as before and did not change their eating habits. They ate less because they had no choice but they ate most of the same food. Sent from my SM-G935V using the BariatricPal App

No. Not true at all. Where I had my surgery, fewer than 6%of patients had complications of any kind, and those that require hospitalizations are extremely rare. You've been outright lied to. Sent from my SM-G925V using the BariatricPal App

My post op was extremely difficult due to complications Sent from my LG-K430 using the BariatricPal App

i am waiting for my bypass surgery date. i recently read that 90% bypass patients end up in the hospital at one point due complications. is it true? i know complications can and do happen, but its still a scary statement. I am 31, my bmi is 41.8, h-5f 7in, i have pcos but otherwise no comorbidities. I wanted to have the sleeve but my surgeon told me that the bypass is a better option for me. he claims that 20% sleevers don't get the results they want and the bypass has better long term results. He says the risks are the same for both, its just half hour longer procedure. My surgeon has a lot of experience and has done over 1500 gastric bypass surgeries. So how come the sleeve is much more popular than the bypass?

Can I ask, what insurance do you have? I have Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield in Western NY. Every plan is completely different, so you definitely need to check with your provider. My insurance won't cover WLS in my case and they won't cover skin removal surgery, but they will cover complications from either.

Hey everyone, I have radio silent for the last couple of weeks. I have been struggling with diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, severe dehydration despite trying to drink liquids. My gastric bypass was 12/23/16. I finally got stool cultures and was determined to contract c-diff after my gastric bypass. I am finally on treatment and things are starting to look better. I am having an EGD today. I have had nothing but complications. Well, that is it for me for right now. Hopefully so everything will work itself out. Sent from my SM-G935V using the BariatricPal App

Ok gang this isn't to scare anyone. Was sleeved on on the 3rd and a leaks was found. What was supposed to be a 24hr stay turned into 3 days in icu 2 units of blood vomiting blood and some of the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life (and I've had 3 kids. )On the 5th day I finally took down oral pain meds with no complications I got released home. I began my normal regimen of taking all medication .I kept feeling like all the medications was taking was stopping right under my breast ,kind of like if you eat a large piece of meat and don't chew it completely .then I began vomiting. I felt weak and and couldn't control my pain . I also can't keep a sip of Water down .My surgeon admitted me immediately . I'm extremely dehydrated weak and tired . Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App