Hello everyone,

I, as you can likely see, am new here.

This is my first post.

I came here because I would like to have this surgery and am gathering as much information as I can as I'm sure you all did.

I'm a big googler, I will not take any medication until checking every little detail about it and have found this necessary because Dr.s do not always know best unfortunately.

Most of the time, whatever it is you are researching, you will find a ton of horror stories first because the happy people generally go on about their lives in contentment while those who had bad experiences go online to post and talk.

So....I have been searching and searching for horror stories about this surgery, complications, people who regret having it done, anything negative at all, and I can not find anything.

Even the few people who said they got nauseous, or had trouble getting in enough protein, little things like that, all say they would do it all again.

I feel that if I can not find ANY negative stories to consider, then I must be missing something, and I want to be fully informed in every regard so I can make the best decision for myself.

Another reason to look at the negatives is the possibility of going to Mexico for surgery.

If one does that, how can they get followup care?

I believe that if your insurance company will not pay for your surgery, they also will not pay for revisions, treatment for complications, and followup care.

So... before I go plunging into these forums to find answers to my many questions, I'd like to start out with the cons...I think I have a pretty good handle on the pros and am seriously considering this surgery.

Thank you for reading this far, I tend to be a bit verbose, and thank you in advance for your answers.

Lorelei

Hello there! Welcome!! I am 10 days post OP and have been very blessed so far in my recovery, with minimal pain and getting in my fluids and proteins ok... This is definitely a great resource for VSG info and to read about both positive and negative experiences... Try searching in subject lines for "leak" "emergency" or something like that... Also I recommend reading a post by Kapoorvilla about her near death experience that she just posted in the last couple of days... Good luck in your decision!!

Great, thank you :-)

Welcome! If I may suggest, how about researching percentages? The thing is, every story is different. Just like everyone loses weight differently! With the sleeve, here are the percentages:

“An irreversible surgical procedure that forever changes the body’s anatomy removing a portion of the stomach to reduce its size and capacity.”

IMPORTANT SAFETY STATISTICS:

Mortality rate: 0.39%

Total complications: 22%

Major complications: 1.9%

The lap band offers lower stats but slower weight loss. Your doctor knows you best and will be able to guide you which will be best for you, considering your own personal health history, weight currently, etc.

How much weight do you need to lose? What diets have your tried?

Chat soon!

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/59339-leak-survivors-a-little-help/

Fairy recent, it's a list of some of the worst experiences vsg has to offer. I want to say insurance companies will pay for the complications especially since they're life threatening.

see the complications forum

Welcome, and good luck in your research. As mentioned above, you can search key words, ER, Pain, leaks, etc... I believe the pros out weigh the cons, but you definitely need to know all the risks involved. This is wonderful, supportive, tell you like it is, forum. They held my hand for 10 days of significant pain, that I'm just now getting relief from. But I have no regrets in my decision to have WLS.

Sent from my iPhone using VST

Hi,

I'm 8 months out. And I too had a hard time finding neg. stories pre and def post op. I talk a bit about my complications n some old posts. But even in my support group my leader asked me to tell my story because soo many ppl have no bad stories to go off of or feel like they have someone else in their position. But hopefully if you do decide to have it done, you will be fine and have no neg. stories to tell either. Good luck

Hello Fellow Newbie,

I'd like to ask you, 8 months out now, are you happy you had the surgery? or do you regret it?

If you had to do it all again, would you?

I'd love to know.

Lorelei

The first 3 months I was soo depressed my family, friends, and even drs were worried about me. I was told maybe I had bad reaction to the anesthesia or no one just had an answer for me. I went on antidepressants, something I've never had a problem with or something I would have never agree to taking before hand. But it really got so bad I couldnt say no.

Now to answer your question. I was on antidepressants for a month and went off. I was back to myself. I had the surgery in April and wasn't back to myself til July/August. Now that I'm back to myself I feel GREAT! After the storm it is now the best choice for me. I exercise everyday. I shop just about every week. I think I'm cuter than my friends again LOL. Life is great. And yes I would do it again.

Thank you so much for sharing that with me.

I very much appreciate it.

Lorelei

I am 1yr and half out from surgery and stopped at the 50% weight loss 256 to 197.... I have maintained this weight for the last 5 months...So some days I do question myself on not getting the bypass. My girlfriend had surgery a week after mine and had the bypass and she dropped all the weight off 236 to 129, so seeing her questions my decision... I am very happy that I have lost almost 60 pounds and feel great , just thought I would share my story with you as a con just so you know some people do stop at the at the minimum percentage as well good luck in your journey.

I had several complications during and after my surgery which resulted in another surgery, multiple hospital stays and half a million dollars in extra costs. You are quite right in saying that most insurance companies DO NOT pay for those costs if the initial surgery or the root cause of the complications was elective surgery. I always like to advise people who have this surgery self pay or in Mexico (often there are specific clauses in insurance policies to rule out coverage for complications stemming from any procedure completed outside of your natural country) to look for supplemental coverage just in case.

This surgery almost took me away from my small child forever. He needs his mommy and he'd have been better off if I didn't have it. He still suffers concerns because of the trauma he went through when I was sick. I was such an idiot to have it but hadn't seen many complication stories either, and my doctors assured me constantly that I wasn't one of those risk factor patients anyhoo because I was so low BMI and had no other issues. It's a great sales pitch until you find yourself feeling so familiar in an ambulance you can get your own oxygen mask.

There are many stories in these threads if you look of horrible complications. Mine has been removed because it caused my dear doctor so much stress (eyes rolling) but they are here in spades. As the procedure gets more and more popular we will see more and more people sharing their stories of pain and suffering sadly.

You can check my thread "Time to check out my hospital's ER"... I got home Thursday from a month long stay in the hospital for a TINY leak that was caught early. Today is the first day home I haven't vomited. I'm so weak I need help walking to the bathroom. A shower made me faint. I can't open the lids on any bottles. I have awful pain in my drain sites from the scabs. I will forever be grateful for the weightloss. But do it again? Watch my family suffer? Have a tube shoved up my nostril down into my stomach? Strict NPO for 3 weeks? No. Absolutely not. I should've got my butt in gear, joined weight watchers and forced myself to exercise.

I'm 7 months post op & 100 lbs less today! I have had complications, I had an infection after surgery, then another in my intestine and have endured pain, nausea, depression & finally lots of hair loss. I missed 3 months of work since surgery in May due to surgical complications & then the infections. However, I've learned a lot about myself, I've learned to exercise, forced to learn portion control & would do it all again. I'm not the typical story & even I think its been worth it.

One thing I've learned is that under my layers of fat & skin, I'm still me. So the struggles I had are still there. Also there is the reality of whats left of my body, my skin with a lot of fat gone... not a pretty sight. Looks ok under clothes though. And still with all that, I would do it again.

Today I'm am half of me, surgery set me free.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me.

I hope to be able to read the shared thoughts and experiences of others as well. The more information I gather, the better.

Thus far, this is what I have gotten from this thread, or rather what I have decided at this time.

I am going to do all the leg work to get the surgery, IE: see whatever hoops I have to go through for insurance to cover the cost, gather any proof or documentation they may require, and get the ball rolling in case they make me wait 6 months etc. This way, if I decide to go through with it, I will hopefully be ready and covered and not have to wait any further.

In the meantime, I am going to try harder to lose as much weight as I can the normal way. I have one new tool, a really wonderful gym at the place where I work that is free to employees. I will take advantage of that. (which might screw me up if I Do decide I want the surgery and then bring my BMI down too low and get stuck at what you call a "stall"). No surgery, and no more weight loss, we’ve all been there I think, but I will try again.

I managed to lose 65 lbs once, took about a year, but I did it for the wrong reasons. I didn’t do it to be healthy, I did it to look better and mostly for a person I was in a relationship with. So when he cheated on me, I lost all my will and put on 15 lbs. Then, I moved across the country, only to get a diagnosis of breast cancer, so I spent a year fighting that, (and winning fortunately, still even have two breasts), during which time I put on another 25 lbs from the steroids they give you when you have chemo and lack of activity, also due to chemo and radiation.

I don’t think that having survived breast cancer constitutes a co-morbidity to the insurance companies, but it should. When I was finished with my treatments, my Oncologist very specifically stated that one of the first most important things you should do to avoid a recurrence, is to be as skinny as possible. Not just lose weight and get healthy, but to be as skinny as possible, his exact words.

This is because the fat in your body holds on to estrogen, and when you have an estrogen receptor positive cancer, it feeds the cancer if there is any left in your body. You have to take medications to prohibit the production of estrogen in your body so it is very important to lose as much fat as possible as well.

In my view, this makes being a cancer survivor (which puts you at risk for recurrence), is something that should most assuredly be considered a co-morbidity.

I hope to talk to many of you about how much weight you lost pre-surgery following the prerequisite liquid diet and how difficult that was for you.

I would expect that if you were doing it just to lose weight without the promise of your surgery at the end of two weeks, it would be much harder than doing it all by itself to lose weight. Hard to combat hunger indefinitely with no light at the end of the tunnel.

So, I'm trying to cover all of my bases. Get everything in line to have the surgery, and make sure I actually need it before I take that deep of a plunge.

I have what is considered a low BMI, 33.5. I’m 5’7” and weigh about 215 so I have less than 100 lbs to lose. I want to start by getting down to 140 and then see what my body and health are like to decide if I should go further and shoot for 120 at my height.

I will be searching the forums for more information about everything, including the liquid diet requirements and the subsequent results.

I thank you all and look forward to hearing more from you.

Best wishes and a happy healthy new year to everyone.

Lorelei