Search the Community

I've been an Insulin Dependent Type 1 Diabetic since I was 18 months old. Been taking insulin for 33.5 years. 30 yrs on syringes and the last 3.5 with the pump. Hypo-Thyroid since I was 7 yrs old. So excited...I just got my surgery date...July 18th. Any recommedations other than the cutting back insulin and running a little high the day of???

I'm going to Tijuana. Mi Doctor with Dr Valenzuela. I'm on clears too. Diabetic and felt so sick earlier that I had some apple sauce. Head is pounding, can't stop crying because my blood sugar is way too low. Other doctors recommend 200g of carbs per day pre surgery for diabetic patients to avoid hypos and keypads.

Have you gone back on your byetta? My diabetic specialist wants me to eliminate my victoza (very similar to byetta LAST). Byetta and victoza have been shown to help with weightloss. They can help the body to regulate both high and reactive low blood sugars. Make an appt with your pcp or whoever deals with your blood sugars, this is not our surgeons area of expertise, and the hospitals usually stop these type drugs since they usually don't carry them. ( they told me to bring mine from home).

My Doctor is Dr Mark Pleatman in Bloomfield hills Mi. I'm scheduled May 28, 3013..I'm doing all fluid day before only. I'm 5'6 and weight is 204..with co morbities...and hypo thyroid..I'm ready for a new journey and being healthy!

Hi. I am a diabetic and I'm not taking my meds either. I spoke to my dr about it and he said to just monitor it for two weeks then see if you still need it. Don't forget, surgery, the meds and your mental state all put stress on your body which can increase the levels. Give your body time to heal and speak to your dr about it. I was more worried that if I did have my insulin that I would have a hypo!

I had a hiatal hernia that was repaired during the the sleeve process but because I have an over-reactive sphincter the space was too tight to allow things to go down to the stomach. I had to back to surgery so the doctor could release some stitches from the hernia repair. It sucked to have surgery twice this week but I am all good now!

Everyone is correct...the VSG does NOT get rid of Hypo/Hyperthyroidism or Hoshimoto's. In my case the surgery did absolutely nothing to change my medication dosage...I have Hoshimoto's Autoimmune disease.

Do you just have to exercise to lose weight? I was planning on starting to walk after my surgery. But I've been on a high protein low carb diet before my surgery, and I use MFP to keep track of my calories and keep in mind I'm not exercising. I'm suppose to be able to eat 1800 and some calories, seems like a lot to me , but that's what it said. I'm not loosing anything. I thought it was calories in calories out kind of thing. Is it simply a matter of exercise or is it to many calories or both? And yes I hate exercise and have a bad knee, but do plan I doing it I know I have to. But I was just curious why I am not losing something. I don't want this to be what happens with the band. Can you just be unable to lose. I am 5'3 and 277 pounds, plus I am 47 yrs old, and was thinking my metabolism might be shot or something. I do have a thyroid (hypo) problem but it is OK on meds. I'm guessing the answers going to be to exercise Actually I hope it is that simple. Not easy but simple. BTW my nut said he has no calorie or quantity restrictions for me he said just eating healthy would take care of everything when I get the band..

Let's see..........hype.....hypo......here it is.....hypocrite.....

It really depends on your body. Sugar may cause dumping. About a year out, it's becoming more common to develop reactive hypoglycemia. If either happens, you'll be avoiding sugar. I don't have dumping so I eat things with sugar. I find I don't feel like more than a few bites and then I'm done. Not like before where I'd stuff my face on sweet stuff.

Hello! Any gardeners out there? Trying to reactivate this thread.

Give it time. It took me about 3 weeks with the gel, and then it wore off because it's a temporary solution to a life long problem, and I was given a vial of Test. cyp and the doors of heaven were opened! If you guys aren't getting pinned for T, and using the gel, I'd recommend talking to your doctor about injections instead. It's a more stable delivery platform and it's easier to manage doses to make sure you're not on a roller coaster ride of T. Plus, why get on T therapy if you're gonna have to worry about your wife getting a mustache because you got sweaty bumping uglies and it reactivated the gel.

Talk to your endo. You won't be having many carbs but you can still bolus if you need to and dose for your carbs. I bet you won't need much and you may have hypo episodes while you are coming to grips with it. You may end up off insulin over time. Lots of type 2 basically leave the hospital in remission. I'm not on insulin but I'm on metformin and fully expect to be able to get off it. My latest A1C was 5.6.

I have Hoshimoto's which is the thyroid autoimmune disease. I have flares where I swing back and forth between Hyper and Hypo but for the majority I am hypo and so are all of my symptoms. I was on Levo and Synthroid for 6-10 years until last fall when I had enough. I switched to Armour 120mg a day and it has changed my life. Unfortunately, the weight didn't change at all but that is fairly typical at least for women. However, my symptoms, tired, achy, brain fog, lethargic feeling all decreased dramatically…some of them completely. I found a doc who treats by the symptoms not just blood work. Just because you are in the 'appropriate" blood work range doesn't mean that you feel any better. I know for me I am at my best when my blood work comes back at around a 1.5-2.0. Some people do better lower. My doc is not an endo either. She is internal med. I had 4 prominent endos in KC and they all refused to listen and went solely on blood work results not how I felt. Their answer to everything was losing 50 lbs. Well autoimmune disease and thyroid issues typically aren't affected by weight high or low. One key to the success I have with Armour is I chew it up and i take it the same time every night with water… nothing else because it can affect absorption. The nice thing about Armour too is that if you are having a flare you can break a pill in half during the day and supplement so it will counter the flare. Your doc could explain more about that. The best thing I did for myself was research, research, research. http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ is by far one of the best thyroid sites out there. Please check it out. It helped me tremendously. Good luck!

I had reactive hypoglycemia pre op. I pretty much new I'd be sick as a dog if I had any sort of carbs at breakfast or lunch. I always got sick between 2:30 pm and 4pm and would have to eat something or I would pass out. Since surgery two weeks ago I have not had any symptoms of hypoglycemia at all.

Hi Selene, Those of us who have been on VST for a while (I'm about a 1 yr veteran) see this type of post a lot! I'm going to repost a mix of many different responses I've given to this type of question. Hopefully you'll find some of it useful! Here goes........... This is a VERY common time for your body to stop and take stock of what's happening. You've had major surgery and are in active healing mode (and will be for several months more to come!). Generally speaking, the body is constantly adjusting to it's environment and reevaluating what it needs to do biochemically to adapt. So if you're losing weight in "patches" (as most of us do), it's because your body is reacting to fewer calories, changing food amount/type intake, hormonal shifts, exercise (or lack of), etc. You are not a static human being that is identical all the time, so your body needs time to "catch up" to the current situation. By the time it does, you've moved on and are introducing whole new set of variables. If you look at my signature line below, you'll see my weight loss record and how many pounds I lost each month (and still losing). It starts out quick and then slows down. Many stalls along the way (had my worst one yet last month......about 4 weeks stalled!). In March I lost 3.7 lbs over the entire month and I was happy because it did actually move down! As long as you stick to your plan consistency will get you to your goals. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. Use this time to build up your new good habits, work through frustrations with a balanced approach and try not to be reactive to the scale. I know it's exciting to finally see the weight drop off, and you want to be at goal NOW! But we didn't get up there fast, and we're not going to lose it overnight either. I'm more than 11 months post-op. I have about 50 lbs left to lose and I suspect it will take at least another 6-8 months to lose those last 50 lbs. I'm okay with that! After about 6 months you will be adapting to major lifestyle modifications regarding your food intake type and of course quantities (and probably have incorporated significant exercise into your lifestyle as well). Your physiology and metabolism needs time to adjust. Measure your progress in other ways (fitness level, clothing fit, body measurements, stamina, quality of sleep or energy levels, etc.). The scale can be deceptive and demotivating at the best of times. So keep your eyes on the prize, stick to your plan and don't let stalls stop you. You just keep on "keeping on". The stall does break (believe me). You just have to not give up! Your overall trend will be down and if you can find a way to measure body fat, it is a much more accurate picture of what is happening. I recently purchased a body fat analyzer which will help me know better what is going on with my weight loss (I want my muscle % to stay or increase!). It's not a sprint..........though it's hard not to be excited for this major change and want it NOW! It's a marathon and we'll get there as long as we keep putting one foot in front of the other, stay informed and actively aware of what we're putting into our bodies, how we're burning off calories and what we need to do to achieve our weight loss and fitness goals. You can do this! Take body measurements, and if you MUST weigh yourself daily (I get it....), then remember to take the ups and downs with grace and stay on your eating and exercise plan, regardless of what the stupid scale says (good or bad!).

I haven't been on this board in over a year, but I see this thread has been reactivated so wanted to put in my two cents. I was sleeved by Dr. Kelly in March 2012. I booked directly with him and had no problems doing so. I was originally going through a Lighter Me, and then chose not to do so after the Dr. they wanted me to see after they stopped working with Dr, Kelly had some really negative issues posted on this forum. I did know about the patient death with Dr. Kelly but did my research and found many people who had been happy with their experience with him. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about him, he came to see me several times before and after to make sure that all my questions and concerns were answered about the surgery. I felt that he honestly cared about my well being. As for my surgery, he did a great job. I had no complications, and my incisions healed really well. Weight loss surgery is hard, don't kid yourself otherwise. You can't eat very much for quite a long time afterwards, and it takes a while to kind of return to feeling "normal". I did have my sister go with me to Tijuana so I didn't go by myself. Anyway, just wanted to voice my opinion that Dr, Kelly is a good surgeon in my opinion and I have no reservations about recommending him to anyone who is considering surgery in Mexico. As for my weight loss, I am down seventy pounds from my surgery. Should be more, but...that's me, not Dr. Kelly! Currently a size ten, started out at a size 18. Very happy I had the surgery, it changed my life. Everyone has to make the right decision for themselves, but if you are considering a surgeon in Mexico, I would definitely recommend you consider Dr. Kelly.

dettie211 in response to "what is RNY" it is just short for Rouxen-Y gastric bypass. AZbanster thank you for explaining, that is more than I've gotten out of my three doctors. And the strangest thing is I'm borderline hypo-thyroid which has just developed last year (running another test next month). I have been worried about Grave's Disease as it does run in families and my mother had it. But she didn't have a thyroid problem as that was the first thing they looked for. Anyway this forum is great. As there are noticeable other problems other than just slippage, acid reflux, erosion of which have come up in studies. Haven't read anything on the heart or thyroid until now.

It did not effect my surgery date for next week 4/23/13, I just found out I was hypo thyroid a month ago.

Hi, I was diabetic before surgery, no medication now BUT I have been having was is called reactive hypoglycemia. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/reactive-hypoglycemia/AN00934 Check out the mayo clinic info at this url. It happens to me about 3 hours after a meal, my blood sugar will plunge to about 50. Which is low. This is actually one of the know side effects of RYN - but - not one talked about too much - and it a bummer and a scary one. The "cure" is to drink about 1/2 cup of a sugary beverage such as juice or regular soda or eat sugar tablets - BUT - this can cause problems in RNY patients. I personally have to eat a snack - which will also work. I find it happens when I have not been careful to eat a balance of carbohydrates during the day and have one meal with a high concentration of carbohydrates. In theory it is easy to prevent but in practice difficult sometimes to implement. I would suggest discussing with your DR and/or nutritionist right away. It is daaangerous.

Hi fellow tall sleevers! I am 6'1" and was 325 pre-op and 288 this morning so down 37 lbs 6 weeks post-op. I hope to reach 220 eventually. I am very shapely but carry most of my weight in my butt, hips and thighs. I also am hypo-thyroid so I expect my weight-loss to be slower than some. Now that I'm starting to eat more types of food it has already slowed to about 1.5 lbs a week as apposed to 4.5 a week. Kinda bummed by the slower loss rate but as long as I'm losing it's OK. I think it's true people often don't realize that a tall body can carry a lot of extra weight and not look like people's idea of what "fat" people look like. I had a couple of nurses who were involved in my pre-op testing say that I didn't look "fat enough" for the surgery. But my BMI definitely qualified me. I try very hard not to compare my weight or weight-loss to others but it happens inevitably. Right now I think I've left the honeymoon stage and am in the nitty-gritty stage of having to work at my weight loss. Pre-sleeve I would have been sabotaging myself by now! Sent from my iPhone using VST

Since you haven't given any specifics regarding whether you are pre or post-op; what food stage you're in, what your eating habits are, and even if you're male or female, it's kind of hard to answer! Generally speaking, the body is constantly adjusting to it's environment and reevaluating what it needs to do biochemically to adapt. So if you're losing weight in "patches" (as most of us do), it's because your body is reacting to fewer calories, changing food amount/type intake, hormonal shifts, exercise (or lack of), etc. You are not a static human being that is identical all the time, so your body needs time to "catch up" to the current situation. By the time it does, you've moved on and are introducing whole new set of variables. As long as you stick to your plan (be it pre-op, post-op or whatever), consistency will get you to your goals. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. Use this time to build up your new good habits, work through frustrations with a balanced approach and try not to be reactive to the scale. Better yet, measure your progress in other ways (fitness level, clothing fit, body measurements, stamina, quality of sleep or energy levels, etc.). The scale can be deceptive and demotivating at the best of times.

Oh my gosh, how cool is that!!!...That's weird how they can test your metabolic rate. I'm hypo and have to take thyroid meds. Can't wait to see what my results are! I guess it's to see if you will be a fast loser or slow loser. Is that the purpose of the test?

Hi thank you for this. I'm only two weeks out but have already reactivated my membership at the gym. I will start with light weights when I start next week...thanks again....

They are a non reactive metal (titanium) so it's pretty unlikely