When does the risk for a leak go way down? Monday is 5 weeks out for me. No issues, no nothing, other than just a little food at a time! I'm being paranoid, I know, sometimes I cannot help but read the complications forum. I feel great, energy is good. S I can't complain, I just want to be in the clear.

I am not a physician but a professor of psychology and I've spent weeks reading the literature on VSG and the recovery process. I encourage you to run all of this by your surgeon for confirmation.

According to the empirical research I've read, the titanium staples are redundant after two to three weeks, maximum. On the average, slightly less than one percent of all VSG patients will experience a leak and the vast majority of leaks (5 out of 6) occur (and are detected) in two to five days following surgery.

Tissue swelling recedes in three to four weeks, maximum, and, consequently, some leaks (1 out of 6) are concealed and not detected until the swelling recedes (typically around the four-week mark). You are five weeks out: You should know by now if you had a concealed leak. There would be stomach pain, possibly left shoulder pain, and very likely fever.

In every documented case of post-surgical leaks I could find, the etiology was traced to the day of surgery itself, the location is commonly at the structurally vulnerable esophagogastric junction (upper part of the new stomach by the esophagus), and is rarely, if ever, attributed to poor patient compliance despite the frequent hysterical admonishments of serious injury and death you often read on these forums from those who are convinced that any post-operative diet other than the one prescribed by their particular surgeon—and only their surgeon—is dangerous and ill-advised.

If you are into statistics, according to the literature, your odds of developing a leak at this point in time are (.16 [1 in 6] x .01) or .00166, which is 1.66 out of 1,000. I'm not a gambling man, but I would say you can breathe easily now.

Congratulations on your excellent result.