Hey all,

Just wondering what I can expect for my final pre-op appointment with my surgeon. I'm having it tomorrow and my surgery is scheduled for next Monday (1/16/17).

I've been STRUGGLING with this liquid diet but have been on track for most of it. Just one week left...three more weeks post-op.

Any details would be helpful. Thanks!

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Ask him to suck the CO2 out before he glues you up. @@Dub's surgeon did that and it helped a great deal. Take a look at the recovery rooms to see what you can realistically bring and charge. Get your diet for the first two weeks and purchase all that stuff this week. You need to prepare for the first two weeks post op which is the hardest and depending on where you live it might be difficult to get out with winter weather. You don't want to risk slipping and falling during the healing. If you are really new at this, have him show you what the inside of your stomach looks like post op. And have him explain what the post op diet does to promote healing. I found that to be really motivating to FTDI (follow the damn instructions). Oh, and bring your meds with you. Some won't be absorbed the same with a sleeve. He will probably know more about this than your PCD.

I had NO idea they could suck the CO2 out of you after the surgery! Dang it, that would have been nice. Nothing like waking up feeling like the Goodyear blimp...with several holes cut in it.

Definitely ask about getting the gas out before you are closed up. My surgeon did that and I had zero gas pain. Make sur you have post op instructions and keep them handy during recovery.

I'm sure all will go well.

Hey, question.. why wouldn't they automatically suck out the Co2. I read how so many have pain from it, you would think that would be routine. Am I missing something....Im going to ask my surgeon on my next appointment

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Hey, question.. why wouldn't they automatically suck out the Co2. I read how so many have pain from it, you would think that would be routine. Am I missing something....Im going to ask my surgeon on my next appointment

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I thought it was routine also because my surgeon mentioned it as part of the surgical process when explained it all to me. He did say that sometimes if they can't get it all out, it can cause some pain.

@@OKCPirate said it.

My surgeon took steps to remove the gas that he could from me. I had zero, zero, ZERO gas pains.

I've had zero complications with my sleeve.

I can also count the times I've had to take any type of acid reducer on one hand.

I feel so fortunate in so many ways. The sleeve has been like a magic carpet that I've ridden to find my way to better health and happiness.

If you're on any medications bring them with you. Not just the names and doses but the actual medications. When I went for my last appointment they went over the size of each pill and the PA was able to tell me which ones I would have to split, which I could take whole, etc. Most of the rest of my appointment was mainly going over what I could expect on the day of surgery, and then signed a bunch of consents (not all, a couple had to be signed day of surgery). It was a pretty easy appointment but I imagine it varies from surgeon to surgeon.

@@WitchySar - yep. Esp. psychotropic drugs. Sometimes they want to shift you from generics to name brands. NEVER let them speculate on the knowable. They are paid big bucks to take care of YOUR health. If they ever say "well I think that is ok" get pissed in a respectful way. They know what to Google and they have access to databases you don't and they should know what all those words mean. Not that I'm bitter, but we patients have gotten to complacent and the docs are so dang overworked in the managed care era that we really have to make sure they are not 'calling it in' but really working for you.

Thanks for all the feedback all! I just finished my appointment and my doc talked about how he makes sure to remove all the CO2 to minimize discomfort. So fingers crossed all goes well on Monday!

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Regarding the CO2 - I know they try to get as much out as they can, but sometimes residual amounts remain that causes discomfort. I don't know what my surgeon did - she said she does her leak test in the OR, and I know there has to have been Water involved but I don't know if the water was on the inside or outside of the sleeve. So that might have helped get the gas out. Or maybe I was just lucky - but I didn't have any of the shoulder/chest gas pains that so many people report.

Hey, question.. why wouldn't they automatically suck out the Co2. I read how so many have pain from it, you would think that would be routine. Am I missing something....Im going to ask my surgeon on my next appointment

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They suck out all the gas. Human bodies are different. Some people will have gas creeping into obscure places and getting trapped. I had horrible gas pain for the first 6 hrs, and was walking around the ward the same night. The nurses wanted me to stay in bed 'cos they were afraid I hadn't totally recovered from GA

Edited January 10, 20179 yr by Middus

Wow. My surgeon wouldn't talk to me about my medications, expect to tell me that I can't take pills and I need to talk to the doctors who prescribed them to figure out if they were okay to crush/split/etc.

Fortunately I already had a psychiatrist appointment the next week (before surgery). It takes 3 months to get scheduled with my psychiatrist and I would have been SOL I guess.

Oh, and the thing that cracked me up was during my final pre-op appointment I had to take a test (so the surgeon could make sure I understood what was going to happen).

@@computercat - based on some of the more surreal posts I've seen, not the worst idea.