Just curious if any of you have gone to Mexico to get your sleeve done? I'm scheduled for nov and I am so excited!

Hi

Really from everything I've read a drain is kind of useless, it's supposed to be able to detect leaks but not really proven to be effective. Plus it's an extra source of infection. I did buy the preop shakes/supplements but you don't need them and they are expensive. If you don't take Probiotics and Vitamins though you might want to get them. I already take lots of vitamins including probiotics and Omega 3's but I bought them anyway. Postop meds are also expensive and I thought should have been included in the cost of surgery. It includes 5 days of a liquid antibiotic, 2 months of prilosec, 8 sublingual toradol for pain and another drug for nausea which I didn't take. But compared to the cost of surgery, it wasn't that significant.

My only extra advice is not to read too much of the stuff on the internet. I was obsessed and read all the stuff on youtube with their bad advice. I was sure I would vomit, have terrible gas pains, be constipated, get dehydrated, be bedbound, etc......none of that was true. Now I'm not sure what your health status is: I'm relatively healthy, besides being 70 lbs overweight, I had mild high blood pressure, but no diabetes, asthma, kidney or liver problems. So if you're in decent shape you should have minimal problems. Of course if you're extremely overweight, i.e. 300lbs+, you might have more side effects.

Other advice is go on an atkins-like low carb diet now. It will not only shrink your liver and help you lose weight but it will help you after surgery with eating and appetite control. I was expecting my appetite to be reduced, my interest in food to be less but that hasn't happened. I'm still obsessed with food the only difference is I'm limited by quantity(which is great!). This morning for instance I made 2 scrambled eggs. Now normally I'd make 3 or 4 with toast and sausage, etc. I ended up eating one egg because half way through Breakfast I felt full! Amazing! You are going to luv it! I now eat like a normal person. Now I'm gonna work on eating healthy, whole foods, no processed junk, no sugar, etc. By the way, I tried sugar twice and it gave me a stomachache(yah!) so I avoid sweets. I have read other people can actually only tolerate sugar/sweets in the beginning but again my experience has been very different from what I read.

You do need to go on a liquid diet 2-3 days before surgery and probably a week post surgery. OCC and other clinics recommend a liquid diet for up to 40 days after surgery! I was not able to do this. On only liquids, I actually had bad diarrhea so I added soft foods about 4 days after surgery and haven't had any problems and no diarrhea plus I feel satiated. On liquids only I never felt full. I only eat soft or pureed foods usually cooked, nothing difficult to digest like steak. I also bought lots of Protein shakes/liquids like Isopure zero carb but again that concentrated Liquid Protein just gave me diarrhea. So I think a little sip here and there throughout the day of Protein shake is good but you're probably not going to want to live on them. The most important thing is NOT to overeat, limit your intake to 4 oz or half a cup at a time or less, never overstretch your stomach while it's healing(6-8 weeks) and of course don't eat anything that would irritate your stomach like over acidic foods, etc.

By the way, I'm not advocating you not follow OCC post op diet. If you can survive on Clear Liquids for the first week postop and another 3 weeks of full liquids that is great. I just couldn't do it. I really hope this helps and I hope you breeze thru surgery like I did(and also the other 4 people I had surgery with). Feel free to contact me with other questions.