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I'm Friday August 1st and very much the same...nervous and excited most likely for different reasons than most. I had complications and this is a revision that is supposed to let me heal and feel better so I'm very hopeful for that!

Trying to decide between bypass (RNY) and sleeve. I am leaning toward bypass but I am not sure. A little about me. I am 5'7" and my high weight was 265 (BMI of 42) current . Diabetic, HBP, Apnea and high cholesterol. The turning point was when my endo Dr was stumped at why my A1C was still high after all the drugs I was on...."duh, I eat like crap!" I went on a medically supervised weight loss diet for six months (exactly like the pre-op liquid diet) and lost 65 pounds. Transitioned off the diet and gained back 40 (CW is 240lbs). Decided the next step was WLS. My BMI is now 38 with all the same complications. According to charts my weight should be less than 165. From the research I have done I have a 50% chance of reaching: 158lbs with RNY or 170lbs with sleeve. My question is the 12 lbs worth the RNY vs sleeve. I am not sure what the extra "effort" of the bypass is??? Is day to day living different between the two procedures. I am leaning towards RNY for a couple reasons. 1) I have a better chance of getting at least a reasonable weight. There is an 80% chance of being at 190 with RNY two years out vs 208 with sleeve. I like those odds better. 2) Once you have the sleeve done you aren't going to go back and have the RNY done (if that is even possible). I am looking for input from people. What was the logic you used to decide pick the bypass. For the record my doctor has recommended RNY but it seems a lot of people in the support group has sleeves. Thanks in advance. Astro!

Hi Everyone . I just got banded Friday . I got home from the hospital today after just a few complications . Now that Im home .. Do I stick to what they were having me do in the hospital ? I bought a bunch of soup , Jello , pudding and broth .. Thats it for the week .. anything that I could add .. Like oatmeal or eggs or anything like that ? What about protein drinks . I have to take that because of dialyis .. Will that help with lapband too ? Any advice welcome Add me also Christina

I was sleeved 10/27 and I only had a one night stay in the hospital. I had not complications and no nausea. I did have gas bubbles really bad the first time I tried chicken broth. I got really car sick on the way home but I didn't throw up. When I go home I felt really overwhelmed and had second thoughts about going home so early. I was able to sleep off my doubts but it wasn't until today that I started to feel less weak and more normal. I have been able to get in my yogurt, milk, and Water. I haven't had any nausea with any of the food I've tried on my full liquid diet. My pain level has definitely diminished but I still have JP drain in which tugs sometimes uncomfortable. I get that taken out tomorrow which I'm excited about. All and all, I'm feeling less helpless and more like this was the right decision. Plus 5 lbs lost in 4 days isn't bad! How is everyone else doing?

My surgery was on May 9th and let me start by saying that all the pain that I went through and the discomfort I am going through right now, is well worth it! I have lost 21 pounds from my HW of 258 bs. Looking forward to many more! Bad news first: I have super tiny veins, very hard to find. Before surgery, the nurse could not find one so the Anesthesiologist came to try to start an IV. The stupid doctor inserted the IV inside of my left wrist. Within minutes, it had infiltrated and had started to swell up. Another Anesthesiologist came with an ultrasound machine and found one vein in my right arm where the IV went. During my stay, the blood draws were a nightmare since many techs poked me several times to find a vein. As a result, my whole arm is black and blue. I could live with that but since yesterday, there is bad tingling in my left hand and my range of motion is almost negligible. it feels like I am holding a live electric wire in my hand, Every time I extend my foreman, an electric shock runs through it. The more I researched this, I found out that this is caused by nerve injury and that the IV in wrist is a no-no. I went to my surgeon today who was shocked to hear that the other doctor tried to put an IV there. So, tomorrow I am going to an ortho hand surgeon for a consult. I am so upset at that stupid doctor and hoping that is just an inflammation that pinched a nerve. I don't want another surgery. Now to a couple of questions: How long before the incisions healed and the pain got better? I cannot sleep on either one of my sides. How long before you were able to eat more than 200 calories? I have found ways to sneek in Protein and had around 30 grams today. I know I need a lot more but that is a start. I am trying to stay hydrated too. Sipping Water all day, drinking some gatorade and even had a sugar free popsicles but calories were not enough to survive. Thank you for all your support during this process! This website rocks!

Hi Ada, after what you have been through this will be a piece of cake. You are only in the operating room about 60 min and one night over in the hospital. The incisions are tiny and heal up pretty quickly. It is really important to get up and get moving as soon as possible to prevent complications such as blood clots and pneumonia. They gave me heparin injections to prevent clots and sequentials ( leg booties that massage your legs). They also give you anitbiotics IV to prevent infection. I was back to work in one week and doing well. Everyone is different. I am 58 years old so I'm not a youngster. I am feeling so great and in control of my eating portions for the first time in 50 years. I feel like exercising again which is a major change for me. I just don't see any negatives about this proceedure. You will get a lot of support and advise on this website. Do your research and find your comfort zone. I would recomend this to anyone who has health problems due to obesity. Best Wishes to you on your journey. Becky

I also had the DS on 6/9/17 and was revised from the band. The doctor did it in a few hours. I had three times the amount of pain when I had my band surgery because the port would pull when I bent over until it was healed and the doctor didn't give me any painkillers post-op. He handed my husband a few pills and sent me on my way. With the band, it was impossible to bend over for weeks. Let's put it this way, no one left the house until Mom's shoes were tied. I couldn't do it on my own. With the DS, I was able to bend over and pick things off the floor the first day home from the hospital and I only spent one night in the hospital. I was tired after the DS for the first two weeks, but by the third week, my life got back to normal. The pain was very minimal, at least for me. Now if you want to talk painful surgeries, a total knee replacement takes the prize in my book. I haven't had any experience with just the gastric sleeve part, only the full DS. Since the sleeve is part of the DS, I'm not sure why you've been told the DS would be an easier recovery. The DS is more complicated than the sleeve. Anyway, the recovery wasn't bad at all.

There's a popular saying around here- just because you can eat something doesn't mean you should. Unless your doctor specifically gave you permission to eat normal food this early, you are putting yourself at very real risk for band slips and serious complications. If this is the case then you need to go back to your post op diet and immediately and tell your doctor exactly what you've you done so he can make sure you're ok.

I am 3 weeks post op and although the surgery went great, no complications- I keep getting sick. The week after surgery I had a sore throat.. I assiumed it was from the tube and ignored it (they gave antibiotics while in the hospital) On day 8 (from surgery) I went to urgent care b/c my throat looked like cottage cheese (gross, sorry). They said I had strep And put me on antibiotics. Completed those on day 15...then on 17 I started feeling like crud again, I have a cough and I can't catch my breath. I went to my PCP and I have bronchitis. More antibiotics. Anyone else's immune system suck post surgey?

Congratuions on completing your 6th month diet! Now you get the really good news soon, right? Questions to ask surgeon: If you have not asked already. How many sleeves have you done? What is your experience in barriatrics? What size bougie will you be using? What complications have your patients experienced right after surgery? What are the top three things I can do to make my sleeve a success? Will I be meeting with a nutritionist after surgery or do I have free access to a NUT in surgeons office to ensure successful new diet and changes? Who do I call after surgery with general questions? What kind of ongoing support is offered? Does office recommend certain suppliments? What is your preop diet/length of preop diet? How long will I be hospital or is this an outpatient surgery? (I was an outpaient for VSG and had no catheder/pain pump/drain/nurses prodding me) Do I see an internal medicine doc for follow up (your own doctor) or do you seen surgeon? Does office have a written sleeve guideline plan with what to expect? (I have several that I have collected, send me a private message if you want me to email to you) Never tried unjury, although I read a lot of people who liked the Unjury chicken broth. My taste buds really changed after surgery and everything was way to sweet for me. Could not choke down fruity or chocolate/vanilla protien shakes. After surgery, more important that you keep hydrated with electrolyes than worry about Protein. Good luck and read up on this site since there is mostly good advice provided.

It has been a long haul since surgery with complications and such but I think I have turned the corner. I am now holding my food and liquid down. Still feel a little nauseas but nothing like before. Not having alot of pain anymore. I actually got on the scale and have lost 4 more pounds. Thats a total of 57 pounds. Still have some work to do to get where I am suppose to be but almost there and I am HUNGRY. Just waiting for the doctor to give me the go ahead on advancing to a normal diet because I will be 6 weeks out this Wednesday.

It sounds like fills are a heap more complicated in the states than here LOL. I go into my doctor's office, have my fill and am back out in 5 mins generally. I'm not charged by the doctor, nor by his office. He doesn't do flouro - I'm not even sure what it is to be honest? But he's never missed and I've been very happy with the results thus far. I've not had to pay for an unfill either. I'm assuming that it's so different because its relatively new in the US? My surgeon has been doing it for over 7 years now and works with the group here that has done all the research for banding. From my understanding (and often, I don't understand lol), gastric bypass is pretty much unheard of here, as its just not done - banding is always the first choice.

Here's what I found as the symptoms from another site Symptoms of stomach leak include: rapid heart rate, dizziness, shortness of breath, fever, worsening abdominal pain, left chest or shoulder pain, abdominal distention, the appearance of illness and a general feeling that something is very wrong. Unfortunately, many of the symptoms may be absent or could be from something else (e.g. bleeding). Diagnosing a leak is further complicated by the fact that there is no single, reliable test to definitely diagnose a leak. Hope that helps, and hope you just asking out of curiosity and not because you might have one Sent from my iPhone using VST

I'm getting sleeved one day before you and I'm so certain that this is what I want to do! I have had a couple of doubters around me but nothing I couldn't handle. Sounds like you're doing this for all the right reasons. This forum has been so helpful in giving us a snapshot of what our life is likely going to be like after surgery. I'm happy to trade in my fat suit for daily Vitamins, skin sagging, hair loss, and other curveballs. Hope there won't be any serious complications of course. Good luck and soldier on!

During my first consultation with the surgeon, he asked me a bunch of questions regarding my past efforts with trying to lose weight. He asked about my support system, my reasons for wanting the surgery, and he asked my ideal weight. We also discussed my goal weight based on my body type. The bulk of the session was the opportunity for me to ask questions. Here are some of the things i asked the doctor that may be good to bring up. 1. How soon after the surgery would I be able to start trying to get pregnant? 2. What are the risks/complications and the chances of them occurring? 3. What are the stages of the approval process and what classes/doctors appointments will i need for approval? 4. What is the average amount of weight a person my size would lose in 6 months after the surgery? 5. Why is gastric sleeve better/worse than other procedures...lap band/gastric bypass/etc? 6. What is the recommended goal weight that I should ultimately reach based on my body type? 7. What exactly happens during the procedure and how long will it last? 8. How many years experience does the surgeon have and how many patients has he lost during the operation and why? (this is a pretty hard question to ask, but i did so that i would at least know. My doctor has lost 2 patients but they were almost 500 pounds, high risk, and had multiple commorbidies and were going to die if they did not have the surgery). Since I am a low risk patient, he assured me that he had done thousands of surgeries and that i would be fine. Good luck to you!!

I'm so sorry you're having to go through all this! Being in the hospital and feeling helpless is a test for anyone, let alone someone with a life changing plan coming up! I've always been a believer that right before you make an amazing, positive change in your life. . . .it gets harder. Darkest before dawn type thing. Maybe when you have surgery it will be cake and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Maybe this is actually a blessing in disguise. I worried too about any additional surgeries, complications, etc especially since I'm self pay and it was NOT cheap! I thought about how I would handle it but. . .then. . I also considered my alternative of staying at 307 lbs and what my future would look like with those problems. I took a leap of faith and thought I would rather deal with "possible" problems post op than a lifetime of definite problems. Anyway. . .sorry for rambling. I'm working nights and was philosophical. LOL! BTW, I'm 5 weeks post op and no complications, doing well. Big hugs to you in that hospital bed!

If you follow protocol about portions, type of food, chewing, etc, and barring complications, you shouldn't get sick too often. Be sure to chew, chew, chew, and don't eat anything you shouldn't. Watch portions and stop way before you're "full". Stick to familiar, safe foods at work and don't go back too soon. Good luck...you got this!

Congrats on recovering. It's good to hear you are doing well. I had a small complication post-surgery, but nothing as serious as yours. It hurt like Hell, but I knew there was no way to reverse what I'd done once my stomach was gone. And welcome to the Loser's Bench.

As per my surgeon, after a recent encounter with a stomach virus, if you are ill and going to vomit, then that is what is going to happen. No, it's not the healthiest event for someone with a band, but single incidents should have no long term complications with your band. I got my virus from my grandsons when I had been banded around 9 months...I had to have a small unfill to give my stomach an opportunity to calm after the irritation. Post illness and prior to the unfill, I stayed on liquids, and could not eat any solid food after 2 days, so I realized that intervention from my surgeon would be required. I recently had the same amount of Fluid replaced and thankfully there was no significant aftereffects from vomiting. It does happen, just do your best to minimize the incidents is what I learned through my experiences.

I was sleeved July 29th. My start weight was 295. I lost 45 before surgery and 44 since the surgery for a total of 89 pounds. I did have a complication (leak and infection), which stalled my weight loss for a month, but since then I have had pretty steady weight loss. Some days I don't lose though. Best thing I ever did for myself and my family!

Hi, I am posting my story because during my "research stage" I have found other low BMIers hard to come by and I want to help someone else like myself out there looking, hoping to find someone with similiar stats. My story: I am 36 years old, 4'11" and my BMI is about 32. I have 3 kids (2 biological, 1 adopted). I am married and my hubby is 12 --count em, 12 yrs younger than me! I have struggled with my weight since I hit my 30s but after my 2nd child it has been completely unmanageable and I can sell you a bunch of other reasons why I am doing this but its irrelevant at this point because now that I have researched everything sleeve related NOTHING can stop me LOL I am obsessed. I was initially researching TT and lipo because I am "not that big" according to everyone (except myself). You see my body type has always been "thicker than a snicker" and it was cute when I weighed about 125 lbs. My bottom had always been my my best asset lol but now that I am over 160 umm it aint cute! If i was to just have TT and lipo my hubby would probably be like dammmmmmmmmmmmm a$$ for days but honestly it would look unnatural and I would STILL be unhealthy and overweight. I would still yo-yo diet and per genetics, keep gaining. So I let go of that idea and started looking into the lap-band because at that time even I thought these other procedures were too drastic for me cuz im "not that big." well that didnt work out because i found too many complications and revisions so i set my sights on the sleeve. YAYY SLEEVE YOURE GOING TO BE PERFECT FOR ME!! Next, I was like ohhh yeah Tijuana here I come because eff paying full price here in the US so i spent countless hours reading up on going to Mexico. But when I told my husband my great idea he said HELLNO. Okay fine. More than likely (depending on my endoscopy next wednesday) I will be paying full price here in my hometown, approx 10k. I dont care about the price at this point, I am so excited and so looking forward to this i can barely think straight. Oh i got sidetracked by my excitment but i do want to say that the certified world national board of whatever says you qualify for surgery at a BMI of 30 or higher. In fact the lower the BMI the better the sucess rate and less complications (for sleeve). That is something a lot of people are not realizing when someone like me is getting this done. I have found some negativity from both wls vets and non-wls. All those other requirements are for insurance purposes. My surgeon said that I am the perfect candidate and he wish everyone would spare themselves the misery of waiting until their BMI is morbid. If you are low BMI and you have the means, do it. I am. You are not alone.

I shared with my immediate family and in-laws that I was going to have the band surgery. My mom had hers the year before me so they were fine with it. We had only been here about 6 months when I had surgery, and I had only made 1 "friend". She wasn't as supportive because she dropped some pretty snarky comments. Anyways, when the complications with the band became too much, and I got serious about a revision, I told only my husband, and that one friend. I didn't tell my mom because she is that typical band patient that tried to blame me for my complications and unwillingness to stick to the band rules. We found out my husband was deploying during my research stage, and I decided to proceed with the revision. I told my mom and all of the comments started. We flew my in-laws to FL from WV to stay with me during my revision since my husband was deployed. I had a helluva surgery, and recovery. I lost that one friend during my recovery which wasn't a loss in the end. When I started making friends here through our spouse's club, and other volunteer opportunities, I was open and honest about my revision. It was kind of difficult to hide the fact that I was dropping 15lbs a month. I saw these women often, we were eating out socially weekly, and I needed support. Through my sharing, my friend is having sleeve surgery next week with the same surgeon that assisted on my revision, and has taken over my care since my surgeon has been deployed for the last 6.5 months. I have not received any flack from the women that I associate with now. They are beyond supportive, at first our conversations revolved around my weight loss and surgery, but now they realize that I'm fairly "normal". I tell people that genuinely want to know. I don't hide it, but I don't scream it from the rooftops. I don't tell waiters/servers in restaurants when I only eat a small portion. I think it's a personal decision, and sometimes we are guilty of giving people just enough information about our lives to be dangerous. I feel like I gave my mom the ammo she needed to blast me. I've learned over the years to not volunteer information. If you feel like people won't be supportive, don't tell them.

YOu showed up at a good time, Monymo! We've had several members experience some problems and complications lately, so it is really great to hear from someone who is 4 years out! Thanks for joining! Cindy

My last filling was in November and its pretty tight. I've been ok until the last 2 weeks where I've had to keep a cup of water on my bed side and sleep at a propped up angle because ill wake up coughing and choking on spit. What could it be? Also, because I paid out of pocket for the surgery, I'm worried if there is a complication that my insurance won't cover anything I might need to get done to fix it. Any suggestions?

I think the majority have a pretty easy time of it. I certainly did. But those who have slower recoveries really seem to suffer genuinely. And a few, bless their hearts, have complications and have a really harder time. Yet when you read the "surgiversary" stories almost everyone (everyone?) says they are so glad they had the surgery, even the ones who had a tougher time post-op. So happy yours is going so well. P.S. And no, I'm not waiting for "a shoe to drop." I'm expecting blue skies.