Hi Everyone,

I decided that I would make a list of things for new people who are thinking about having WLS that might be helpful to them. This is long so please PRINT THIS OUT TO READ if you don’t want to read it all at one time.

• First thing is to start asking people on the board you are on all kinds of questions—make of list of things you want to ask and keep coming back and ask more questions as time goes on. The more questions that ask the more you educate yourself about WLS and the process and what doctor they liked. Don’t rely on just one source of information. It is really normal to have all kind of feeling and emotions when trying to decide if you want to have Weight Loss Surgery. I must have talked myself in and out of doing this at least 50 times during my 6 months of research. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. This is a big step. But if diet and exercise worked for us then we still wouldn’t be fat and would have lost the weight a long time ago and never regained it. It takes a lot of courage to have Weight Loss Surgery. I am very proud of you for looking into this. Don’t give any more days of your life being overweight, and your body hurting along with being unhealthy. WLS really is your answer.

• How do you select your surgeon? First of all this is NOT a time to price shop for the cheapest doctor to do your WLS—that is just the wrong way to go at this. There are a lot of doctors who advertise on the Internet doing sleeve surgery for a lot less than some other doctors. I found one posting from a person who had the following concerns after having surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. (a) They put NO name band on her to be able to ID her when giving medications or anything else. ( NO one asked if she had any allergies to foods or medications—thank goodness this person didn’t have any. ( The lab did NOT label tubes of blood with the person’s name on it—very dangerous. © Day after surgery they gave this person ice chips, tea and apple juice. The next day (day 2) they gave this person NOTHING so this person asked why and the nurse said this person wasn’t allowed to eat anything. Well, this person then said I had Clear liquids the day before and they wanted to know WHO gave it to this person?? (d) This person was told that they would get a copy of the operative report on their discharge to take home with them—This person has not received it yet and that was about 2 weeks ago. So make sure have positive feedback about the Surgeon and Staff and Hospital that you choose. My choice after 6 months of research was Dr. Aceves in Mexicali, Mexico. What I can tell you in my opinion is that he is the very best you will ever find to do your surgery. I can only speak about my experience and my research that I did before I made him my choice for a surgeon.

• Pack lightly for your WLS. So many of us have gone to Mexico, so you want a small suitcase with wheels, a laptop & a cell phone. The clothing that you wear to Mexico are the same ones you can wear home—slip on shoes work great too. Make sure that the clothing is loose fitting. Something just comfortable for your ride home. While in Mexico—that is if you go to Mexico for WLS make sure you take GAS-X. They have nothing in Mexico that they give your for gas, and the use gas in your abdominal area during surgery. It is painful after the surgery, so GAS-X STRIPS are easy to use by just placing them on your tongue. Take a couple of boxes with you—you will be glad you did. If you are going to use a credit card make sure you tell your credit card company and your Bank if you use your debit card or credit card. Sometimes if you DO NOT let these companies know you are outside of the US they block your charges. Use a credit card or debit card vs cash it is much easier to use. Take small amounts of cash for tips—I took $45.00 in 1’s for tip money for various things. If you go to any hospital anywhere leave ALL jewelry at home –just a watch and no rings or other jewelry. I never had any problems at all leaving my purse and computer& cell phone in my room while I was in surgery, but they recommend that you leave all jewelry at home. If you are a lady please remove all nail polish—they need it removed to see your nail beds during surgery.

• The first month you do after surgery is the HARDEST month you will ever have to do. You do 10 days of nothing but clear liquids to start with—that means you have to be able to see through the liquid. Do not panic if you can not get the Protein they want you to have the 1^st 10 days—I couldn’t find anything I liked that was clear during the 1^st 10 days. They want you to try to drink 64 oz each day, and I don’t think I could ever get that much Water drank—just do the best you can. Your new stomach has just had major surgery and it is swollen and will only hold something about the size of your thumb. The next 10 days gets much better—you are now on creamy liquids for these 10 days. You can now have some creamy Soups, yogurt, and pudding—sugar free and find a Protein Drink that you like. For me it is Premier Protein Drink and I get mine at costco. When looking for a protein drink, make sure they are low in calories, high in Protein—Premier has 30 grams of protein in each drink box and make sure you have low carbs too. I know there are a lot of other Protein drinks out there that people like. When it comes to carbs I tried to keep mine at no more than 20 carbs per day. Ask others what kind of Protein drinks they liked and where they get them. The last 10 days are mushy foods. So this is a bit of a challenge. How many foods can I make mushy? I even considered using some baby foods. Start thinking about what will work as mushy foods for you.

• Starting the 2^nd month is quite an adventure. You can eat regular food. Here is where the relearning process takes place. You now will take tiny BABY BITES of food and chew each bit about 30 times or until it is like a liquid. From here on out you will need to take small bites of food and chew and chew and chew. I found out that chicken and fish were a lot easier to chew up. I don’t eat much red meat—your tastes will change and things you didn’t like a lot might taste good and something that you used to love don’t taste that great anymore. Keep track of what you are eating and keep your calories at about 800 calories per day and no more than 20 carbs per day—whole grain carbs are the best to have—NO white or refined carbs. I highly suggest that you keep track by writing them down or using some of the Internet sites that offers you this. I suggest this site it works great there are other sites to use this is just a suggestion. http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ It really is good to write down and track everything you put in your mouth to start with—that is how you know that you have not had more than 800 calories per day.

• I want you to understand weight loss surgery is just a tool. The fat doesn’t not just melt off of you—they is NO miracle cure. Now you have to put a lot of effort into eating healthy and starting to exercise. Everyone has some kind of exercise that works for them. I love walking and try to walk about 5 days a week.

• For many of us we started to lose some of our hair 3 or 4 months after having WLS. I would find a lot of hair in the shower after washing my hair. That is pretty normal for a lot of us—this does not happen to everyone. There is no magical cure for hair loss—some people use different shampoo’s or take Biotin. It happens and you live with it. YES, it will grow back. For me I had pencil straight hair and mine grew back natural curly and I love it now. I already had thin hair so for me, I got some cute wigs and wore them for about 9 months until my hair looked a lot better. It was worth the hair loss to lose 105 pounds.

• Because we eat a lot of protein we suffer from constipation. You need to have at least 70 grams of protein EACH day. So I mix my protein drink each morning with MIRALAX. It is NOT habit forming and is tasteless and it is just a good way to start off the day. I put the protein and a cap full of Miralax in the blender with about 5 small ice cubes and that is my Breakfast. 3 years later I still have this for breakfast and nothing else, it just works for me.

• You may have periods where you have what we call STALLS. You may be doing everything right and eating and exercising and you have NO weight loss for a week or more. This is normal—mine lasted 9 days. Don’t panic the weight loss will start up again, just keep doing what you are doing.

• Our heads play games with us sometimes it is ugly what our brain tried to convince us of—We call these “Head Games” and they really are tough times to work though, but you can do it. Your head is still thinking with your old brain and way of thinking that you have been doing for most of your life. You now are eating VERY small amount of food, but your head is used to you eating LARGE amounts of food and that is what your brain wants—so it tries to tell you the you should be eating more—NOT true at all. So you need to have a talk with yourself. Do I just WAN T to eat or do I really NEED to eat?

• You are not on a diet, but you are making a LIFESTYLE change and that is good because you can do this for the rest of your life. You will NEVER be able to eat like you used to. That is good because that is how we got fat. You will morn the loss of food—you will look around and see others inhaling all this food and you think to yourself—I used to eat like that. You will notice how fast people eat and inhale their food and talk and hardly chew what they are eating. That is pretty normal feeling to have—because you are now eating such small amounts of food and chewing and chewing. You will never be able to guzzle a bottle of water again—that is OK too. These are all good things. In time you will look at all the food people are eating and thinking to yourself oh my gosh I could never eat that much again—it is way too much food.

• When you have issues or problems come back to the board and ask others who have already done this. We are here to help and support you.

• Give or exchange all your fat clothes away. You will never need them again after they become too big for you. This weight loss is something you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life. You have earned the right to have new clothes.

• Make sure you have the VERY best doctor that has had a lot of experience with sleeve surgery and check his success rates out. Check the doctor for HIGH patient reviews from the people who have gone to him or her. I can NOT STRESSS this enough. Make sure that your surgery is being done in a hospital NOT a Clinic. One clue that it is a clinic is if they send you to a hotel room to recover—that is why they cost less, this is also dangerous too. YOU are worth the extra money that it cost to have this WLS in a Hospital and by the best Doctor you can have. You want to have a happy and GREAT life and having the RIGHT Doctor and Hospital are the key to this.

Sorry if this is long, but it is intended to have as a reference and answer a lot of your questions that you might have. For some of you, you are very lucky because your health insurance is now starting to pay for Weight Loss Surgery. For many of this, we did not have your luck, so we are self pay patients. There are companies that loan money for this surgery—be aware that their interest rate is high. Once you pick your doctor ask them about these companies that give loans for surgery if you are a self pay patient.

You know we never think twice about making car payments. If you have to borrow the money for this surgery just look at this as “body payment.” It will be the best money you have ever borrowed. Please PRINT this out to read later. If you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me. I had surgery almost 3 years ago, so I do have quite a bit of experience. I really am here to help you along your journey. It took me 14 months to lose this weight and I was 63 when I had the surgery, so it is NEVER too late in life to do this.

Thanks for taking time to post this for us newbie people

Thanks for taking time to post this for us newbie people

Hi,

Your welcome, you are just who I wanted to read some of the things that I wrote. I got such good information from people on these boards when I was starting out. So I thought I would put some of my experience down on paper and put it out here for others to read.

I am always around if you have questions, fears or just need to talk. I wish you great success in your Weight Loss Journey.

Hugs, Suzanne

Great information & advice! I'm just starting my journey down this path and this will be a valuable tool for me to come back and read over and over!

Thanks so much for your information. It is truly very helpful for those of us who are considering the surgery to help us understand what to expect. Congrats to you for your sucess you have obtained for these years!

Thank you for the post. So being older didn't slow down your weight loss? I'm 46 and in menopause and its been hell to lose just 10 lbs since March. I was doing Weight Watchers until my preop diet and I'm still not really losing. It drives me crazy. The calorie intake is about the same per day as I was doing on WW.

I will be so glad when next week comes and have my surgery. Sometimes I feel I will just be fat forever :-(

Thank you for the post. So being older didn't slow down your weight loss? I'm 46 and in menopause and its been hell to lose just 10 lbs since March. I was doing Weight Watchers until my preop diet and I'm still not really losing. It drives me crazy. The calorie intake is about the same per day as I was doing on WW.

I will be so glad when next week comes and have my surgery. Sometimes I feel I will just be fat forever :-(

Hi,

I promise you that you will NOT be fat forever. It takes time to lose weight and I was happy that I lost mine in 14 months. Just take it one day at a time. There are a lot of feeling and emotions going on before you have the surgery, but you are going to love having a sleeve. You are so very lucky that you are doing it when you are 46. Keep me posted and remember I am always her to answer or help in any way I can.

Hugs,

Suzanne

Thanks so much for your information. It is truly very helpful for those of us who are considering the surgery to help us understand what to expect. Congrats to you for your sucess you have obtained for these years!

This is just why I wrote this note. I know it was long, but I wanted to address all the things I could think of. I know there are things that I may have left out, so I may add more later. It is nice to have this information in advance, it just works if you have some of this information before te surgery.

Take care and let me know if there is anything I can do or question you might have.

Hugs,

Suzanne

Great information & advice! I'm just starting my journey down this path and this will be a valuable tool for me to come back and read over and over!

Hi it is always fun to start the planning stages of your life changing event. I had someone that I must have driven nuts with all my questions. But always keep asking questions until you are comfortable with the answer. We all need to educate ourselves if this is what we want to do. Please stay in touch and know that I am here for you if you need anything.

Hugs,

Suzanne

thank you so much for the valuable info. you answered most of my questions and put to rest alot of my fears. thanks for the inspiration and knowing it truly is never too late!!!!

Hi,

I am happy that this helped for you. It is NEVER too late. I wish you great success in your life changing event. You are going to be very successful. If you have any fears or questions along the way, just contact me and I will try to help you any any way I can.

Suzanne

thank you so much for the valuable info. you answered most of my questions and put to rest alot of my fears. thanks for the inspiration and knowing it truly is never too late!!!!

Hi. Suzanne,

Thank you so much for sharing. So many of us have questions, upon questions, upon questions, and it’s great when people like yourself share your story. We truly are on a journey and hearing from someone like yourself, who has already gone and come back really is comforting. I was especially glad to know that someone who was around my age has had great success. I am 61 and will hopefully be sleeved in November.

WOW THANK YOU so much for that rundown! Im 11 days post op, and that helped tremendously!! Thank you for your time : )

Hi. Suzanne,

Thank you so much for sharing. So many of us have questions, upon questions, upon questions, and it’s great when people like yourself share your story. We truly are on a journey and hearing from someone like yourself, who has already gone and come back really is comforting. I was especially glad to know that someone who was around my age has had great success. I am 61 and will hopefully be sleeved in November.

Hi,

It is my pleasure to be able to help. I want people that you too can be successful. I had a million questions myself and asked soooooooooooooo many questions. I feel that we know ourselves better than anyone else. And being 61 is fabulous. You are going to love this journey. Sometimes the people that you think that will support you might not. They be scared for you and not know everything that needs to be learned. It isn't time to educate them. After that they see you are becoming healthy and losting weight and getting off a lot of your medication then they might be willing to listen to you and how successful your weight loss is going to be.

You will make lifestyle changes and NOT be on a diet. It is pretty easy to maintain. I wish you great success and please feel free to always come back and ask me any questions that you want. I am always here for you.

Hugs,

Suzanne

WOW THANK YOU so much for that rundown! Im 11 days post op, and that helped tremendously!! Thank you for your time : )

Hi, I want to let people know that these things can happen, that we are here to help and support you. And there isn't anything that you can't do. This is ALL about you and NO one else. You are going to be very successful. This is going to work. You are going to have all kinds of feelings and emotions. I am only an E-mail away. There are No questions that you can't ask. Ask away. Iam happy for you.

Hugs,

Suzanne

Hi,

It is my pleasure to be able to help. I want people that you too can be successful. I had a million questions myself and asked soooooooooooooo many questions. I feel that we know ourselves better than anyone else. And being 61 is fabulous. You are going to love this journey. Sometimes the people that you think that will support you might not. They be scared for you and not know everything that needs to be learned. It isn't time to educate them. After that they see you are becoming healthy and losting weight and getting off a lot of your medication then they might be willing to listen to you and how successful your weight loss is going to be.

You will make lifestyle changes and NOT be on a diet. It is pretty easy to maintain. I wish you great success and please feel free to always come back and ask me any questions that you want. I am always here for you.

Hugs,

Suzanne

Thank you soooo much and I will take a "rain check" on those questions.....