I have been lurking but not had the time to get "official" until today.

I am scheduled to have a VERY troublesome band converted to a sleeve on 3-18 and I am honestly scared. Not of the surgery but just at the loss of everpresent friend Mr. food.

I have a few questions for you sleeve veterans. Thank you all in advance for taking the time to answer.

#1) Do any of you regret the sleeve surgery or wish you had done something different. (ie RNY)

#2) I only have about 60-70 pounds to lose. When you reach your goal weight how do you and your body know it's time to stop losing? What do you do differently?

#3) I have a 1 year old and a 3 y/o. I would really like to be able to take 3 or 4 bites of birthday cake with them once or twice a year. (This is why I did not want a RNY. No dumping) Can you do this without a problem on a special occasions?

#4) I have had a lot of problems with food poisoning and stomach virus's and other lovely things my kids bring my way. This has been agony trying to puke your guts out with the band in place. Is it the same with the sleeve, or just back to normal puking?

#5) Speaking of puking. I have had nothing but trouble trying to eat with the band without drinking anything at all. Either drink with food or have it in my throat. Is this any different with the sleeve or do you feel tummy full not in your throat full?

#6) We travel in Europe every year. Has anyone had trouble finding "easy" food to eat in other countries?

#7) Since I have 2 very young kids, I will only have my husband to help me for 4 days after my surgery. Should I start planning my nervous breakdown now?

Sorry, I know that is a lot of questions but, you know, I have saved them up for a long time and it's not that often my husband and kiddos give me this much peace and quiet for this long. Thank you all again!!!

:001_rolleyes:

Hi and first off welcome. As a band to sleeve revision, let me just say this, that while I loved food before my revision, guess what I still love food, and above the food, I love that I'm in control of my food intake. Eating with the sleeve is truly effortless. I know it's a difficult concept to grasp, I didn't believe it pre-revision, but seriously, it's pretty awesome. Sleeve vs. the band is night vs. day, everything is different.

To answer you questions:

1) No one single regret. To answer the 2nd part, not no but HELL NO.

2) I'm having a bit of difficulty maintaining, but it's a learning experience. You add healthy fat, carbs, and calories to your diet since you aren't in the losing stage anymore. I have stopped my cardio, and am back to just my lifting routine since I don't need to burn, burn my calories, I need to build more muscle mass to burn the fat, but build muscle and maintain my current weight. I am still well within a normal body weight for my height, and my labs have been perfect post-op so I am not unhealthy, malnourished, or sick because I'm 20lbs below goal.

3) Only 30% of RNY patients experience dumping so it's not a guarantee. Anyways, I eat sweets a few times a week now that I am not really watching my carb count as carefully as I did during my losing phase.

4 & 5) It's pretty much normal puking. Obviously, you need to protect yourself immediately after surgery, Lysol, hand sanitizer, etc etc, as your immune system can be suppressed immediately post-op, you don't want to be puking during the 6 weeks of staple line healing. But, it's pretty much just normal puking. Now, early out when you're learning to eat with the sleeve, you may have to puke up something, but for me it's kind of like a creeper feeling coming up my esophagus. It's not the normal "upchucking, wretching" puking you do with the band.

6) Can't help ya there, but I eat anything and everything I want, just smaller portions. If your trips are further out than the post-op diet, then you should be fine in other countries.

7) The first few days post-op you'll be exhausted so outside of sipping as much as you can, resting when your body tells you it needs rest, and walking to help rid your body of the gas, you won't be able to do much. I recommend cooking up plenty of quick/easy casseroles, and food for your family as you recover. Food smells absolutely made me want to hurl so I ordered food from Schwann's for my kiddo and the husband was deployed during my revision and recovery.

Seeing your from Texas, we're planning a Dallas meet-up April 3rd, lunch and shopping and socializing. The final details haven't been nailed down. But, thought I'd put the bug in your ear if you'd like to join us. I'll post a big thread when we get closer to the 3rd.

Who is performing your revision?

Best wishes, and keep us posted on your progress.

I am not a vetran at 1 month out, but I think I can answer some of your questions:

#1) Do any of you regret the sleeve surgery or wish you had done something different. (ie RNY) Absolutely not. I am very happy with my restriction and my results thus far. I specifically picked this surgery due to the fact that I will be able to eat what I want, just in MUCH smaller quantities.

#2) I only have about 60-70 pounds to lose. When you reach your goal weight how do you and your body know it's time to stop losing? What do you do differently? From what I've been told, people up their calories a bit and start adding more carbohydrates to their diet.

#3) I have a 1 year old and a 3 y/o. I would really like to be able to take 3 or 4 bites of birthday cake with them once or twice a year. (This is why I did not want a RNY. No dumping) Can you do this without a problem on a special occasions? Not during your healing period, but definitely after that time.

#4) I have had a lot of problems with food poisoning and stomach virus's and other lovely things my kids bring my way. This has been agony trying to puke your guts out with the band in place. Is it the same with the sleeve, or just back to normal puking? I have only had one episde of vomiting since my sleeve. At first I thought I was having a reaction to my food choice (cod), but later learned that I had a touch of a stomach bug that is going around. I must admit that it was strange - only a small amount came up since only a small amount went down.

#5) Speaking of puking. I have had nothing but trouble trying to eat with the band without drinking anything at all. Either drink with food or have it in my throat. Is this any different with the sleeve or do you feel tummy full not in your throat full? It's very hard to explain, you just get this feeling that you've had enough. Having too much for me means pain between my shoulder blades.

#6) We travel in Europe every year. Has anyone had trouble finding "easy" food to eat in other countries? No experience with this - sorry.

#7) Since I have 2 very young kids, I will only have my husband to help me for 4 days after my surgery. Should I start planning my nervous breakdown now? Maybe not a nervous breakdown, but you will need a plan for lifting them while you are healing. You should be feeling much more like yourself by day 5.

Best of luck. Always feel free to ask questions. We were all researching at one point as well.

First of all , thank you for ALL your answers. You are so knowledgable and thoughtful and when I see you reply, I always know it will be great information.

I would love to meet up with all of you on April 3rd. I will only be 2 weeks out but by gosh I know Dallas shopping like the back of my hand. Let me lnow if you need location suggestions.

How do I email you directly or send you my email so I can stay up to date on the shopping date? I am new at the forum thingy???

My email is tifjb1@yahoo.com you can also find me on Facebook with the search feature using that email address. If you send an email or Facebook friend request make sure you put VST or VSG in the title/subject so I don't discard the email or ignore the friend request.

I'm always available if you need anything. I've been there and done that with the band, and had a complicated revision and recovery because of it.

Hi,

How are you doing?

Scheduled for surgery on 8/9/2010 with Dr. Kuhn.

All your worries are very small and insignificant. Worried about taking a few bites of cake? How about being obese and dying at a early age and not seeing the rest of your life. Go get the surgery and quit complaing and worring.