Hello everyone!

My name is Heather and I just wanted to pop into the forum to read about other people's journeys and for moral support.

I just returned from TJ where I had VSG surgery with Dr. Elias Ortiz on December 21st, 2014. I'll make post after this about the details of my surgery, but first, here's a little background:

Both my brother and I have been overweight all our lives. He was always big, even when he was a baby, but I didn't start to blow up until I was about 4 years old. Regardless, poor eating choices coupled with a lazy lifestyle has led me down a path where I am now in my 30's and bigger than ever. My weight is a little over 310 and I'm about 5'6". I work a super-stressful corporate job, so at the end of the day all I want to do is go home and decompress. The more busy my job gets, the less I take care of myself. Some days I only averaged 1 meal a day and was a notorious Breakfast skipper. Sometimes I was too tired to even care about dinner.

I started to look into the surgery options a few years ago, but I had only heard of the VSG surgery this year. I have had several friends get the RNY gastric bypass, but I was turned off by the dumping syndromes and malabsorption problems. It wasn't until one of my friends who was about my size started to look noticeably smaller. I pulled her aside one day and asked her if she was on a diet or what she was doing. She confessed to me that she snuck off to Mexico to have the surgery. She passed along the information for A Lighter Me and told me about what a great experience she had. Just having someone to talk to who had been through the procedure was awesome! I had so many doubts and negative thoughts about Mexico, but her first hand experience really helped me to look into things with a more open mind.

I just look forward to not being trapped in this body anymore. I look forward to breaking the hold that food has over my life. Dieting for me has always been a struggle. I have tried just about every fad diet, pills, shakes, you name it. The only thing that I was ever semi-successful at was just counting my calories. I used MyFitnessPal and tried to keep my calories in the 1500 to 2000 range, but I was ravenously hungry ALL THE TIME! No matter how many healthy Snacks I ate, I was still hungry. It just got to the point where I was tired of starving myself, tired of being hungry, tired of feeling like I didn't have any energy, so I would crash and just eat whatever I wanted.

I'm hoping that losing the weight will take the stress off my joints to where I can move better. I love doing Zumba and other dance aerobic type things, but I have to be careful. One wrong move and I'll tweak a disc or pop my knee. Can't wait for that to go away!

I lost my mother to super obesity, and I know that it's going to take more than a surgery to change our lives. I am fighting lifelong bad eating habits coupled with depression. I want to start going to therapy/counseling so I can start addressing the underlying issues with my overeating. I fully intend to make this work. I JUST turned 30 and I feel like now is the time to take control of my life.

I don't want to get diabetes. I don't want high blood pressure or high cholesterol. I don't want to be at risk for heart problems. I don't want to have to go to "special" stores to buy clothing. I don't want to tell people I don't want to go hiking with them because I would slow down the whole group because I have to take a rest every few minutes. I want my body to reflect how I feel inside. I look at my body now and see someone filled with sadness, someone who doesn't want to take care of themselves and has let themselves go. I know people talk about how you need to love yourself first and the "fat acceptance movement" and that "big is beautiful" and that's all well and good for them, but that is not how I feel inside. I don't want to be this way anymore. And I'm hoping that this surgery will help me get to where I want to be.

I know this was an incredibly long post, but if you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I hope that everyone here has had a positive experience with their surgery and I hope to keep posting as I continue my journey.

~*~Heather~*~

Congratulations! It sounds like you made the choice for very valid reasons. I had surgery on the 15th of September. I live in Washington state so I had surgery in Kirkland. I have lost 40 pounds since August. I had hyper tension and have since quit my meds.

Well wishes to you on your journey of life changing choices.

Here is the story of the sleeving itself...

My brother and I drove down to San Diego on 12/20/14. (We live in the Bay Area, so it wasn't a bad drive, about 8+ hours). We parked in the Border Parking lot and were picked up by Remy from A Lighter Me. He took us across the border, and we stopped at the Mi Doctor hospital to do our bloodwork, EKG, etc... After that we headed over to the hotel and checked into the Marriott Tijuana. I went down and had a bowl of broth for dinner, then went to bed.

The next morning, Eduardo picked us up and we drove to the hospital. They set us up in the room and I put on a gown and compression stockings. I was feeling dehydrated since I had started coming down with a cold, so they put me on an IV right away. Once I got some fluids in me, I felt a little better. The different doctors each came in and met with us. Asked me questions about my medical history, I learned my blood type (A+, whoo whoo!), etc... Then after a few hours, they were ready for me. They wheeled me into the OR, and I got up on the table. They positioned me where they wanted and shot my IV up with something good, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up on a bed, and they were having me scoot over onto the bed in my room.

Apparently the whole sha-bang took about 3 or 4 hours. I figure with the pre-op prep, sedation, surgery, and post-op stuff, that made sense.

I didn't feel too bad the first night, I guessing that was the drugs, LOL!

The next day though, I had really bad gas pains in my shoulder! I have never experienced pain like that before. Luckily the nurses were very attentive, and were always checking on me. Every few hours they would come in and check my blood pressure, give me more fluids if needed, and shot me up with antibiotics, pain killers, and some kind of cold medicine that worked wonders. I woke up the next day and my sniffles were GONE!

So surgery was on Sunday, on Monday they had me up and walking. Had me go in and shower, wash my incisions, put on my jammies. The nurses came in and changed my dressings. I was kinda thrown off by the drainage tube coming out of me, but it didn't hurt at all. The hospital itself didn't have much room to walk, so I improvised by putting my IV rack in the middle of the room and walking from one end of the room to the other. I had a long enough IV tube that I was able to pace the floor and never have to leave my room. I was also watching my futbol (God bless Mexico, they have whole CHANNELS devoted to the Beautiful Game), so I wasn't trying to leave, hehe.

Tuesday came, same process as Monday pretty much. Up, walk, shower, walk, rest, walk. I drank the nasty blue dye, and was taken down to do my leak test, we got the results back that afternoon, and they released us. Now, this is the only part where I acted like a wuss... They came to remove the drainage tube. I figured they'd snip a few stitches and pull out a few inches of tube. BOY WAS I WRONG! The doctor was like "Take a deep breath" so I did and he started pulling, and pulling, and pulling! There was so much tubing in there, and I could FEEL it on the inside coming out of me. It was the weirdest sensation. It didn't hurt, it just felt WEIRD!!! But once he pulled all the tubing out, I felt a lot better. No wonder I felt bulky inside! I told my friend that I felt like the magician who keeps pulling a hanky out of his sleeve, and it just keeps coming!

So then we headed back to the hotel, they told us we could try broth if we felt like it, and we had a steady supply of gatorade. Anything I drank made my stomach cramp and gurgle, so that first night I only drank a little bit of broth. Wednesday came, and I was able to keep down about half a bowl of broth. Swallowing still felt weird, and I was working out the gas bubbles. Luckily I had brought a supply of Gas-X strips with me, they made a world of difference.

Abraham took us out on the town Wednesday afternoon, where we got to walk around, do a little shopping, drink some DELICIOUS beef broth from one taco stand, and just enjoy Mexico. It was really nice, as I was feeling better and wanted some fresh air.

Thursday came, I was able to finish a whole bowl of broth (this is over an hour mind you, little sips, gurgle gurgle, wait it out, few more sips, repeat) and we said goodbye to Tijuana. Remy drove us back to the Border Parking, and we said goodbye to our new friends.

All in all I had a wonderful experience. I had so many misconceptions of Mexico but I am happy to say that I received excellent care in the hospital. I am home now, and have been sticking to my broths and creamy Soups. Some places say you can try watered down oatmeal, but I think I'll wait till at least my 2nd week before trying those. I am going to start my Protein shakes today, hoping I don't get the runs...

But yes, this is my story, hopefully it will help someone if they are considering surgery. I love this forum, so many people sharing their experiences, I can't wait to read more and post more!

~*~Heather~*~

Congratulations! It sounds like you made the choice for very valid reasons. I had surgery on the 15th of September. I live in Washington state so I had surgery in Kirkland. I have lost 40 pounds since August. I had hyper tension and have since quit my meds.

Well wishes to you on your journey of life changing choices.

Thank you lessofmevsg! I am hoping my joint problems will go away when I get the weight off. I can't wait for all the new things in my life!

~*~Heather~*~

Congrats!

Congratulations and welcome to the Loser's Bench.