Leaderboard

I don't know how much weight you have to lose, but if its a lot I doubt a lotion or cream is going to help it retract as you lose weight. It may help with the look of some of the stretch marks. It can take up to a couple of years for skin to retract as much as it is likely to, and that depends on many things - age, weight lost, history of yoyo dieting/big weight losses/gains, genetics, environment. Look to the most expensive cream/lotion you were going to buy and starting putting that money away into a savings account (maybe once or twice a month), at the end of a year or more you will have some funds for new clothes or the beginning of a savings account for skin removal (if it is needed).

I think everyone feels that way, I mean who really wants to have life changing surgery that carries so many risks?? For me I wish I could have found the strength to do it 10 years ago. Im so mad that I wasted so much of my adult life feeling fat and miserable and torturing myself with diet efforts to never see any real long term success. I would renew it every year if I had to. Doing this was the best thing I've ever done for myself.

Mattz you look amazing!

Hello, I just want to give you all an update on how surgery went for me! Monday August 19th I was given a 6:30 arrival time, the checked me in and weighed me. Next the took me to a short stay room where they had me change, use the restroom if I needed to, wash my hands up to my elbow and get into the bed. By this time it was probably around 7:20. Just so you know I hate needles and well they poked me twice! Ones to get my morning lab done and another to put the IV in. Next they took my Vidal’s asked me questions, had me sign my last consent form that was to confirm the surgery and put my compression cuffs on my calves to keep blood circulation going and to prevent blood clots. Then here was the waiting game, by this time it was probably 7:50am. At about 8:25/30 another nurse came in and gave me a chance to use the restroom before being rolled down to the surgery prep room/recovery room, there I met my anesthesiologists, my in surgery nurse, got prepped for surgery, signed consent form for anesthesia. And then I was just waiting for my surgeon to arrive, he was late 17 minutes which I heard was normal for him by one of the nurses waiting with about 4 of us to go in to surgery. When he arrived he asked me how I was doing and I had any last questions and then was told he will see me in the operating room. The last thing i remember was my anesthesiologists giving me something to “calm” me down in my IV as i was being rolled away going into the operating room. Next thing I wake up in recovery, being asked about pain which was high for me but I remember also being really nauseous so they didn’t want to give me much pain medicine because they didn’t want me to to get more nauseous. While still in the recovery room all I remember is them changing me to a different and more comfortable gown from being in this itchy paper one I was given in the beginning. They took off all the stickers off me and rolled me to my room where my mother had already been waiting for me. I probably slept most of the day Monday. By the time I was in my room it was already 11:45am/12pm. My mom stayed with all day till about 5:30 and my sister visited me for about 2 1/2 hours and left at the same time as my mom. Which I appreciate them keeping me company even when I was knocked out (but I did feel bad) _______ Now I was told everything went well with surgery BUT once I started to wake up more during the night I did have quite a bit emotions going through my head. Like what did I just do? I want to cry. All because all I wanted to do was drink water/my liquids in normal speed (they brought me Water at around 4pm but my tray of liquids at 6 for dinner with medicine cups) but i knew I couldn’t and that i had to take sips because i didn’t want to hurt myself. I had a hard time with that! Tuesday came and I was brought my breakfast and it took me a long time to drink even one thing because I had no appetite and my mother had to remind me to drink one medicine cup every 15 minutes like I was told to by my nurse. I had a little pain but was able to get it under control. My surgeon came and checked on me at 11:45 and I asked him if having pressure in my chest when I drink normal and he said yes it is but it will go away after today or a day more. He told me surgery went well and that I even look good being as awake and aware as i was the day after surgery. He saw I was keeping my liquids down and didn’t vomit once so he requested the discharge nurse to start my discharge paperwork. Meanwhile that was happening I was seen by my dietician, even though I had the papers at home she gave me another copy but gave it to my mom since she will be taking care of my groceries, she also gave me my medical card to keep in my wallet just Incase of anything which is also a card that gives me permission to pay for half a meal half price later on if I was to go to a restaurant. I got discharged at 1:30pm and let me tell you from all the bumps and turns (the little that we did have) got me REALLY car sick that I had to close my eyes in the car and even when I got home at 2 I still had a little nausea for about an hour so I napped because I couldn’t find my little mint thing they gave me to smell when nauseous (I told my mom to put it with my stuff but I couldn’t find it unless she put it in her purse and forgot). Dinner came around and I had brought home my Protein drink from the hospital I didn’t finish at lunch and I had a hard time drinking it, i just didn’t have no appetite. Anyways that’s how surgery went! How are my AUGUST 19th 2019 surgery siblings doing? It is 3:27am Wednesday morning (wide awake as I type this in bed, was woken up by my mother checking up on me at 2:40 asking me if I have to use the restroom so she can help me out of bed since my bed is high, we checked my incisions and one of my incisions started to leak a little which I was told if it did to just put gauze or a bandaids on where it’s leaking. Got back to bed but started to have pain so I had some medicine and then decided to type this out and now here I am lol. _____ Pictures bellow are from when I was in the hospital. The two in the dark was Monday night after dinner time (they left my tray because they wanted me to work on it throughout the night when I was awake because I kept falling asleep) and the one I’m in with my tray was taken by my mother to send to family who wanted an update on me and on how I was doing on Tuesday at breakfast. 

Great! Sent from my LG-H931 using BariatricPal mobile app

FWIW - 5'3", 55 years old at time of surgery. 3rd surgi-versary in a few days (8/23). Highest weight- roughly 300+. Current weight - about 162. Lowest 152 after contracting e coli. I told only my immediate family (two teen daughters and husband.) I did not tell my mother or my sister (mom died without knowing and sister still doesn't know). I am NATIONALLY RANKED as a fencer now in my age group in two weapons (foil and saber). I can deadlift 240 and back squat the same. Getting your head in the right place is the biggest issues. Learning to deal with emotions without food is huge for most of us. Finding an exercise you love is important. Tell who you choose, or not. But I can tell you that this made a mammoth difference in my life. Best wishes to you.

I remember on the morning of my surgery saying to my partner "Do you think I can just lose the weight and keep it off on my own and not do the surgery?" That was obviously nerves talking, but his answer made perfect sense. He said, "If you could, you would have by now". Bariatric surgery is NOT a failure. It's still hard work after surgery to lose and maintain for the rest of your life. It's about using a tool to make the best choices for your health. You'll still have to eat properly and exercise, but WLS is the tool that will help you to learn how to change not only your weight, but your mindset. Since my bypass 11 months ago I have become intolerant of a good few foods - not a bad thing when they include sugary foods, fatty foods and absolutely intolerant of anything chocolate. It's not easy but it's your health you need to consider.

I think that's pretty common when making the decision to have surgery. I, too, thought I could try once again to lose it on my own, but I leveled with myself. What would make this time any different from the other 1000 times I've done it? Losing weight and gaining it back was pretty much the story of my entire adult life. Weight loss surgery was the only thing that ever worked for me. I'm glad I had it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about a young woman who had a Lap-Band weight loss surgery after years of suffering the emotional journey of an overweight kid. The story was very honest about what to expect with this type of surgery, and it also tracked the journey of the young woman. The story is of interest to many as more and more teens and adults are turning toward the option of weight loss surgery. The latest number of weight loss surgeries performed in the United States is 220,000 per year. That is a seven-fold increase over the past 10 years according to the New York Times article. Weight loss surgeries do save lives and also improve quality of lives for sure, but they aren’t for everyone. The surgeons do the surgery and are skilled at centers of excellence, but unless the patients come back, join support groups and stay in contact with dieticians, falling off track is way too easy and, unfortunately, many of them do, including the young woman in the NYT story. I run several food addiction groups in Houston, and was featured as the psychotherapist for TLC’s show “Big Medicine.” On the show, I worked closely with Drs. Robert and Garth Davis. We tried to give the viewer an honest look at what happened with the weight loss surgery and the journey after. My work now is primarily with revisions. Revisions are the surgery done when the first weight loss surgery failed. My office is full, as are my support groups. What happened to the patients that so eagerly came into our offices feeling empowered and ready to give up their morbid obesity forever? They are replaced with patients who hang their head feeling like they failed. Even though they feel defeated, the ones I see are the fortunate ones who were able to step out of their shame cycle, call their insurance company and ask for a second chance. They need a second chance because neither they nor we (the health team) had a full picture of what was underneath their weight. They couldn’t see it prior to surgery, and since they are their own historians telling us their story, we are blinded also. I believe in weight loss surgery, but I believe more in the knowledge we impart to the patient prior to and after the surgery. Performing an alteration, such as a weight loss surgery, is a huge decision, but in the case of a minor I think the whole bariatric medicine team must be on board. There has to be a built-in safety net to handle the transformation of the child as well as their family. Everyone who loves the patient must change when someone they love has weight loss surgery. The counselor, dietician, and surgeon must know all of the family members. We must know who is sabotaging and enabling that patient on an emotional level. Enablers are the people still giving the patient food as a source of love. Our bariatric treatment teams must also understand if simply making better food and lifestyle choices worked, it would have worked 20 diets ago. It did not. Obesity has an addictive component, and addictions are kept in place by denial. Most patients will tell you they are not addicted to food exactly the same as an alcoholic will tell you they aren’t addicted to alcohol. The question is: “Do you use food to comfort yourself?” If the patient says “YES,” then treat them for a food addiction. Do this because they are telling you they have a relationship with food that is emotionally based and most likely they are choosing food with high fat or high carbohydrates (not one of my patients has ever had an addiction/emotional relationship to steamed or raw vegetables). Whenever a patient feels like a failure after going through the process of weight loss surgery and everything it entails, it is heart wrenching not only to them, but to me and anyone working in this field. If insurance companies won’t cover patient care for years to come after the surgery, then we in the field are going to have to put these measures in place and make them affordable to the patients. We cannot tell a patient they need to continue in groups and follow-ups if they can no longer afford the cost. Whoever said, “Weight loss surgery is a quick fix” truly never had weight loss surgery or worked with my patients. There is nothing quick about it. Obesity is a disease and once you have it, losing the weight is the easy part, managing that loss is a life long journey.

fresh out of surgery I ended up in the ER and back in hospital with aspiration pneumonia, an acute UTI and critically low potassium. I’m pretty sure the uti was due to the catheter being in place so long after surgery. I don’t know why they kept it in to monitor my output until the day I was to be discharged. They kept telling me my chest pain was gas, I kept saying no it’s not. It wasn’t. Any liquids I sipped were being aspirated into my lungs. It was pneumonia. I just don’t get fevers like normal people do. Maybe my immunodeficiency. I don’t know. I went home to intermittent fevers. It would spike really high at night and go down by morning. My body doesn’t fight what it needs to. So then doctors don’t think I’m sick if my body doesn’t maintain a consistent fever. The ER did a chest X-ray, bloodwork etc. and admitted me. I hate hospitals. I got stuck there three days with IV potassium and antibiotics. The hard part was I could barely move. After my surgery I was basically bed bound, when the nurse tried to get me up to walk I made it to the hall and had to hurry back to bed before I passed out. Every chronic pain in my body screamed bloody murder all at once. This round in hospital wasn’t much better. I waited for tests, they kept trying to give me regular food so I wasn’t getting protein. Long story short, they did a swallow study which showed dysphasia and every time I drank thinner liquids, ie. Water, thinner shakes. It puts me at risk of aspiration. I’m still struggling to find the cause. It’s esophageal Dysphasia. So my gastroenterologist said it’s not his area, my ent said it’s not his area it’s neurological but so far the neurologist doesn’t know and is sending me to another neurologist. I had a bad reaction to the antibiotic I was sent home with. And ended up with severe oral thrush. Im getting those chest pains that extend down under my ribs again. I had a upper gi fluoroscopy and endoscopy. I was told I have a sliding hiatal hernia, Schatzki ring, ulcers, and a stoma stricture (severely narrow stoma) Nothing as of yet is resolved. I see my surgeon next month. I don’t regret fighting for the surgery. It was my last hope to fight against metabolic disorders and inability to exercise, to lose weight. It was eating me alive. I am having a hard time of things but most people even with complications do very well. For me it’s hard to separate out all my other medical issues from recovery.