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Surgery was Wednesday and it went well. But I am struggling with nausea and vomiting. I have only been able to keep down a few ounces of liquid a day. I finally got my Dr office to call me in some phenergan but I vomited about 10 minutes after I took it. The Medical Assistant tells my I don't need phenergan just take Reglan, Symax, and Prilosec and I will be fine. I am ready to strangle her. It defeats the purpose of taking these meds if I just vomit shortly after taking them. I am hoping today will be better. I definitely don't want to end up back in the hospital with dehydration. Any tips would be greatly appreciated since my Dr's office is not very helpful.

I'm almost 5 weeks out. Until yesterday the scale didn't really move for 10 days after having lost about 4 #/week. It fluctuated between 1 pound difference from day to day(up .5lbs, then down by .3lbs ect). Finally I had a 1.5 loss. I just so happened to meet with the surgeon yesterday and he said everything is going great. I could expect to lose an average (over 3 months) between 2-5#/week. Everyone stalls and maybe this is your stall. I will say this though, even tho I wasn't losing during those 10 days, my body composition was changing. I had bought a new pair of pants right at the time I stalled and now I'm hiking them up because they are already a bit too big. Keep your head up

I am 10 days post op and I am always hungry. The first 4 days I didn't even think about food, and now I'm always hungry. I drink my water and my protein shakes too. Is there ANYTHING I can eat at this stage that won't hurt me. Oh and I had the gastric sleevr not lap band.

My small work group was my second family and I knew there was NO way I could deny what I was doing, and didn't want to. We didn't all work the same days and only worked together on Fridays, so to save myself a LOT of talking and them a LOT of questions, I wrote them a letter! I highlighted my years-long struggle which they'd all been aware of, my reasons for doing it, what I was having done exactly, and what the first few weeks after would be like, then left a copy on everyone's desk. They were all SUPER-supportive and excited for me. I did tell them that I didn't want to advertise it to all our patients, and asked them not to mention it openly in the gym area, and they were great about that. I had the VSG and scheduled two weeks off with the option for a third, but ended up going back for two half-days 10 days in because I felt great and was SO BORED. With the RNY being a much more extensive surgery, you'd probably want a little more than that, depending on what your job isl

Just wondering if any of you had him do your band and what you think? I am all for getting this done, but my mom has really scared me about it. She lost all of her weight the natural way, and thinks everyone else can do the same. 5'-10" heaviest- 365 now- 319 goal- 199

I was banded by Dr. Spivak on Sept. 16th, had my first fill Tue. (10/18/05).......Dr. S is wonderful as well as his entire staff. I can not say enough good things about them all. My friend works for a major health insurance company and she TRIED to find something bad about Dr. S prior to my surgery and found NOTHING!!!!! I believe you will find everyone on this site loves him. Go to the consultation and see for yourself. Its very important for you to be comfortable with your doctor and not go by everyone else. Good luck!

Not only how much you eat but how often as well. Im 4-10 and unless i jump around a bit I have never lost, I am frozzen but not yet filled as banded Dec 22. Any chance getting to a indoor pool?

Hello new friends, I am probably on here super early. I don't have a doctor, surgery date, or any of that yet. I can only tell you that about 4 days ago, I got to a point where I was disgusted at the weight I've gotten to. I began crying to my mother (who by the way is 100 pounds and tried to tell me she understood) and I haven't been able to stop crying since. I hate that I can't bend over to tie my shoes, I hate that I can't keep a pair of jeans for longer than 4 months without getting holes in the crotch from the rubbing, I hate that I can't cross my legs, I hate having rashes and the way I smell, and most of all I hate that my poor kids are always bored because I never want to get up as I don't have the energy to do much more beyond getting myself to work every day. You would think that all of this would give me enough motivation to just take the weight off but it doesn't. Instead I get even more depressed, and I eat even more. I know it's wrong yet I keep eating and eating…3 helpings sometimes and then I proceed to eat what is leftover on the kids's plates because I can't bare to waste food. I'm sick. I don't know why I can't stop but it's really spiraling out of control and I need to do something. I got to talking to a couple of friends both of whom I've known for many years. One has had a lap band with much success and the other has had gastric bypass with much success. They both recommended the sleeve ironically. I'm trying to read up on all the surgeries and I guess I feel it may be the right one as well. I've been reading non stop for 3 days now and my next step is to see a doctor. What are the opinions of others on the differences between the three surgeries? My other dilemma, and I know I've read this already from others on here, is am I taking the easy way out or should I just do it with diet and exercise because I have done it before? I've struggled with weight since I was a child. I come from an Italian family where everything revolves around food. I remember my grandmother would make ravioli and at the young age of 6 years old, she would encourage me to eat 10 of them. Then when I ate 10, she would encourage me to eat another 2. Then there was dessert…and never just one choice. It went on like this for years until finally I moved away from my family and decided to try and see what I could do to lose the weight now that food wasn't around every corner. I did everything from good old diet and exercise to fasting. I could never keep it off longer than a month or so. Finally, around the age of 25, after my first son was born, I took most of it off and got down to 125 pounds, which is still heavy for a 5 foot tall woman. It took so much effort that my life had to revolve around diet and exercise. I took Xenadrine, which is now off the shelves (hmmm, I wonder why), I walked to and from work, was on my feet at work teaching all day, ran 4 miles or more each day on top of that, ate absolutely no dairy and very few carbs, ate 5-6 tiny meals each day, and never ever ate after 4pm. I followed every diet tip known to man and was still considered overweight for my height and build. All that work and all it took was me taking a desk job for it to all go to crap. I had lost my teaching job and began working in an office that I couldn't walk to, sat all day, and immediately the weight gain started and I was back to 180 in a matter of months, even though I kept doing most of the other things. Xenadrine was taken off the shelves and there went another 20 pound increase. My lifestyle now would not even allow for part of that. I have three children, barely have time for myself, and I work at a desk for at least 10 hours each day. I get home at 7:00pm starved and just start shoveling the food in. I am really just doing a lot of venting here and would love for someone to tell me I am looking in the right direction with the option of surgery. I plan to make an appointment here in the next few weeks with a doctor but it always helps to have the support of others who understand. If someone thinks I should just suck it up and get myself to diet the normal way again, please say so Thanks for hearing me out and I will be around reading more and more and educating myself as much as possible. I will keep everyone up to date on what the doctor says once I get the appointment.

You won't know for sure. What you need to do is let go of that worry and understand what all your body is going through right now. You had 80% of your stomach removed. Ok, think about it like this. Think about the hardest you've ever fell or been hit by something. Think of the deep bone level bruise you got. How long does it take to fully surface? A week? 10 days? Well, that's internal bleeding, coagulation, blood rising to the surface, your white blood cells flooding to the area, more blood to begin healing, the area is hot for weeks! The bruise will raise and take weeks to slowly heal and go away. Can be 6 weeks before the bruise disappears. And that's just from a blunt force trauma. Now imagine you have 80% of your stomach removed, you have hundreds of sutures/staples in there, you have 5-7 incisions points - each the equivalent to being stabbed by a knife. Now think about all the swelling and healing that requires? Think about all the processes in the body, the shock, the attempts to heal itself. Our bodies will retain water, send blood and fluid to the areas that need to heal, it will slow down the metabolism in order to promote healing and prevent weight loss as that is a primal process in our bodies. There is a lot of science behind why people don't lose or gain in the first few weeks post surgery and most of it is related to how the body behaves as it's healing. Don't waste another thought or worry on this!!!!!!!! Just focus on meeting your goals, I PROMISE you, you will begin dropping weight like crazy if you follow your post surgical stages and protocols. You are doing great, it's so hard and scary, I had a ton of these types of questions and only learned these answers from asking. I am so proud of all of us, TBH, we are SUCH badasses for doing this. You are gonna do great and you are totally OK.

I'm just about 4 weeks post op as well. I eat turkey cold cuts. I recommend taking little bites and chewing to oblivion. Take about 10-15 minutes to eat one slice. Works for me! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

@@docbree congratulations! You will do great losing your 10% I hope they get back with you quickly with your approval so you can get your surgery date!!! Good Luck! Summer

@@Qtpie28 my doc told me not to gain any weight but loosing 5%, 10% wasn't required some docs/insurance do require that you loose 5% , 10% of your initial weight weighing 350 lbs you must loose either 35 lbs or 17.5 but, on the other hand the more you loose pre op, the better obviously that means you have all the less to loose post op follow all the necessary rules for WLS practice as you get ready for the big day these are rules you will be following for the rest of your healthier, happier, longer life good luck kathy

Wanted to be sure all of you bandsters or those of you interested in learning about bands were aware of the NW Weight Loss Conference in Portland OR 10/28 through 10/30. Check it out here. Dr. Emma Patterson will be speaking and Sandi and Gloria of Banded Living will be conducting a table talk and presenting a break out session. Look forward to meeting some of you there!

I don't think there is a "usually" when it comes to these things. My surgery was 10/25/10 & my first fill of 1cc was on 12/1/10. There was 3.2cc's placed in the band at the time of surgery so that gave me a total of 4.2cc's at 5 weeks post-op ( 24.5lb loss at this point). At my 1/5/11 appointment we discussed how much I could eat & how long I stayed satisfied and decided to add .5cc's, so I am now at 4.7cc's at 10 weeks post-op (36lb loss at this point). I can eat any food I have attempted, it just takes less of it to fill me up and to maintain satisfaction. I'm happy with this & my next appointment is 2/2/11 so unless something drastically changes by then I think I will stay status quo on the fill aspect.

I'm 24 years old, and I had the surgery when I was 23 (late August of 2010). I was told that I was too young by a few. My mother was first very angry when my dad suggested the lapband two years ago. This was after them worrying and trying so many approaches for years. My mother eventually realized that, if something drastic wasn't done, I may be increasingly obese my entire (probably brief) life. She told my grandparents that I was about to get the lapband and my grandpa was so upset that she now pretends like I changed my mind and I didn't get the surgery. He said: "Why surgery? Why doesn't she just diet?" Even with my current success with the band, questions like these still make me ashamed that I couldn't just be normal and stop eating too much. I became the only chubby child of the family at about the age of 5. Until puberty, I was sometimes chubby and sometimes at a normal weight depending on how active I was. After puberty, I gained weight like you wouldn't believe. My usual weight was about 230 pounds by first year of university. Without intending to, I actually lost the freshmen-15 and ended up at 215 pounds. I gained almost exactly that amount back by second year. Then, one diet got me to 193 pounds before I rebounded over two years' time to an all-time high (or low, more like it) of 267 pounds. I've tried diets and I'm not saying they are all crap and this is the only thing that works. This is in some ways a diet anyway and not everyone (their fault or not) loses a substantial amount of weight with the band, or at least keeps it off. But, one often quoted study states that about 95% of diets fail. Another states that people who diet gain more weight in the end than those who were the same weight but did not diet. Now, I don't need to replicate the studies behind these statistics to see their underlying truth. My most successful diet was followed by my all-time highest weight. The one weight-loss in freshmen year that I didn't even realize was happening (until the end of the year) still failed after a year, but at least it only brought me back to my usual weight of 230-something. So, what's the answer? Continue dieting and keep rebounding to a new high? Never diet and stay at the same weight for fear of gaining more? With the lapband, there's a higher rate of success and why wouldn't I want the process of dieting to be easier? I got the lapband now because I don't like the odds of people who go it alone. I also don't like the odds of people who've been overweight since their teens. If I had gained weight after pregnancy like some women have, I probably would have given dieting and exercise a few more tries. As far as age goes, I think there are two ages that are the best for lapband: 1) when you're in your youth and you are just beginning to date, find yourself, travel, apply for jobs and 2) when you're mature and you need to lose weight for your health and to mitigate co-morbidities. Of course, any age is a good time to lose weight, whether you're regaining your youthful confidence or seizing those opportunities that you missed out on when you were in your 20s. Anyhow, I don't like how I feel when I'm overweight and I don't want to struggle like this for another 10 years, until I'm at a more "appropriate age." As long as you're old enough to make an informed and independent decision about your own body and as long as you have tried the solo route, I think the sooner the better.

Thanks everyone. I'm glad they made me jump throught the hoops though. When I started, Cigna didn't cover the sleeve,now they do. It's only going to cost me out of pocket about 10% of what it would have to go to Mexico. So the money I've saved I plan on putting towards my plastics. Again, Thanks everyone on this board for the information. Tracey

Wanted to be sure all of you bandsters or those of you interested in learning about bands were aware of the NW Weight Loss Conference in Portland OR 10/28 through 10/30. Check it out here. Dr. Emma Patterson will be speaking and Sandi and Gloria of Banded Living will be conducting a table talk and presenting a break out session. Look forward to meeting some of you there

I am also a slow looser and always have been. You have to remember someone who needs to lose 150 lbs is going to loose faster then someone who needs to lose 50 I have NASH which makes me loose very slowly but at least I am loosing and if it takes me 10 years at least I will be healthy. This isnt a quick fix and I hope you aren't thinking that It is a lifetime commitment. So just keep doing what you are doing...it will come off!

Meant to say 10 days pre-op lol

Thanks for your advice. I have decided to keep pushing forward with my weight loss, slow as it may be at this point. I don't know that I ever had a "honeymoon" phase. Maybe the first 3-4 months when I was losing without much exercise? I do know that I am working as hard or harder now to lose weight than I ever have in the past and it is going much more slowly. Aside from a stomach bug last month causing me to drop about 3 pounds in 2 days, my weight loss has "only" averaged 6 pounds a month since my second month post-op. And I have easily lost 8-10 pounds per month in the past through diet and exercise. Doing the same level of exercise I do now, but eating more calories than I'm currently capable of. All I can do is keep doing what I'm doing and as long as the scale keeps moving down (however slowly) I'll get to goal eventually.

Pearldrop, try journaling. On sundays we have the family over for dinner, and this past Sunday while everyone was eating, i had my jello and wrote in my journal. It didnt take long for the feeling that i wanted food to pass. It works for me. Im on day 10 of a 14 day liquid diet, surgery is tuesday the 29th Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using BariatricPal mobile app

Hello to everyone . I got okayed this week for my gastric sleeve surgery....scheduled for Oct 28, 2019......I have some wish washy feelings going on right now....I have lost 14 lbs on my own since I started talking to Dr about this surgery the first of July....Same Dr. took out my gall bladder on June 17, 2019. so I popped the question of sleeve surgery to him and it has been a journey toward this goal every since....So looking forward to it and getting my life back again...I have been bouncing around 200 lb all of my adult life. I am 79 years old and didn't even think it possible to get approved because of my age....so glad I was approved....anyhow I retired and got married and also moved from NC to Ga. all at the same time....11 years ago....that is when the weight started piling on...I had gotten up to 267 lbs and now I weigh 253 lb. Would love to hear from anyone that would like to share pre-op and post op tips.....and how to eat after the initial post op liquid diet.....thank you all and looking forward to hearing from anyone...SissyJ

Some people seem to breeze right through the recovery process. Not me, I was banded Nov 19 and finally I think I am feeling 85% normal. I am still sore at my port sight and still don't feel comfortable lifting things! I do not want to mess anything up! I was not really hungry though, but I had been on a 3 week pre-op liquid diet so I think that helped shrink my stomach! Just take your medicine and walk as much as possible and take it easy! Let people help you if you can!!

Yes, they bypass is more prone, or predisposed to, ulcers than the sleeve (just as the sleeve is predisposed to GERD.,) but they are a different sort of ulcer than what you have. The bypass tends toward marginal ulcers around the anastomosis (junction) between the new stomach pouch and intestines. This is because the part of intestine that is now immediately downstream of the stomach is not resistant to stomach acid like the duodenum - the upper part of the intestine immediately downstream of the normal stomach, which gets bypassed along with the remnant stomach in the RNY. Consequently, that anastomosis is very sensitive and prone to ulcers, which is the root of the "no NSAID" rule that permeates bariatrics - you don't want to take any medication that could irritate that anastomosis (there are other meds that may be limited, too, but NSAIDs are the most common class.) What I would be concerned about is what caused your ulcer, and whether that cause would be relieved (or exacerbated) by your surgery. Similar to your hiatal hernia and GERD - fixing the hernia will likely correct your GERD and you will be back to "normal" - no more predisposed to it if you get a sleeve, but still possible. One of the problems with the bypass is that it leaves you with a blind remnant stomach and upper intestine, which can't be easily monitored with an endoscopy, so if something develops in that blind section, you may not know about it until things have progressed more than you would like them to progress (possibly to a cancer.) Some express a dislike for the sleeve because if they have a resultant reflux problem then it could lead to Barret's esophagus and possibly cancer, which is a fair concern; however, that is something that can be easily monitored endoscopically if those symptoms develop, and can be treated; problems that may develop in the blind stomach or intestines of the RNY may not be caught until it is too late to treat effectively, so there is a trade off there. You are somewhat caught in the middle, with some contraindications for both of the common WLS procedures. This is where some serious talk, and understandings, with your medical team is appropriate to really get a good handle on your problems going into this, and how those may play out in the future. I/m not so sure that I would be comforted by the matter that the surgeon may be able to work around a problem (such as an ulcer) if that problem is likely to reoccur 5-10 years in the future, and possibly worse - the surgeon is out of the picture by then, but you aren't. There is another alternative that might be worth considering, which would be the duodenal switch - it uses a sleeve, so it doesn't leave a blind remnant stomach, but due to its' malabsorption component, they typically use a larger version of the sleeve which is less prone to GERD problem. Your surgeon may not offer it (it's a more complex procedure, so many surgeons don't offer it) but it may be worth looking into to see if that fits your need. Good luck,