MlkPas

I used Dr. Ara Keshishian in Glendale. $13,500 including everything except the pre-op labs. LOVED HIM.

Two things: 1. HIGH FIVE FOR THE "EASY WAY!!" Why on earth wouldn't everybody cure their obesity as easily as possible if they had the option? To me this is a total no-brainer! 2. I'll be one year out in a week and I'm still losing. I still have great restriction although I get hungry sooner than I did earlier on. I work out 6 hours a week (2 sessions with a personal trainer, 2 one-hour "boot camp" classes, 2 tap dancing classes) because I love it and it makes me feel great. I'm wearing size 2 bottoms and size 4 tops. I can easily lose weight on 1100 calories per day, and I can maintain on about 1500-1600 per day, which seems like a lot given my small appetite. I can see that I could regain some or all of the lost weight if I grazed all day and didn't exercise, but I have every confidence that isn't going to happen because I have great eating and exercise habits in place. I still weigh daily and track my exercise and every bite and every sip on www.fitday.com and plan to do that forever. I know that I still have the disease of obesity even though it's in remission, but I can't begin to describe how much more normal I feel, even with my tiny tummy, than I ever felt before my surgery. No guilt, no regrets, just a whole lot of gratitude!!

I'm 11 months out and I can eat anything in very small portions. The only thing I have trouble with is sweet alcoholic drinks like margaritas and so on -- I stopped ordering them because they are SO sweet and fill me up too fast and I end up not being able to drink more than half!

I only told my immediate family and closest friends before the surgery -- didn't tell ANYBODY at work because I have a high-profile job and didn't want people gossiping about me. But after about 9 months I was having lunch with some colleagues and one of them looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'okay, EXACTLY what have you done to lose all that weight?" I had the choice of refusing to answer, lying, or telling the truth. At that point I felt like it was pretty clear my surgery has been a huge success, so I said "I had 85% of my stomach cut out and thrown in the trash!" People were pretty surprised, they asked a few questions, but honestly, the conversation moved on to other topics quickly enough and nobody has been interested enough to even ask any questions from that day to this. The lesson I took from this experience is that nobody cares about our business NEARLY as much as we think they do! LOL

I'm almost 11 months out and my loss has slowed to a crawl, too. I'm hoping to lost 5 more pounds by my surgiversary on March 17, and my ultimate goal is to lose another 5 more after that. I'm not really dieting, but I have tracked every bite on www.fitday.com every since my surgery and it really helps keep me honest! If you don't want to do that, I'd advise cutting out the bread -- it slows my loss like crazy! Also, are you working with a trainer? A good one is expensive but you might find it's worth it. I started with a trainer at the end of August and I'm really happy with how my body is re-shaping itself! Just a few thoughts from somebody with almost identical numbers!!

I was happy to go home after one night. I breezed through the whole experience and didn't feel like I needed to stay any longer than I did.

My Costco doesn't have the Premiere Protein bars. I like the Pure Protein bars that I get at Target. Depending on the flavor, they are 18-20 grams of protein in 180-200 calories. And they taste pretty good, too.

My boobs are going to be the last to go, I think. My butt is pretty much gone but my boobs are still too big to suit me. Ugh. The only plastic surgery I plan on is a lower face lift to get rid of my turkey neck and the lines on the sides of my mouth. I traded my double chin for a saggy neck and I don't like it one bit!!

I agree. You're not going to feel all that great, and if you can afford it the first-class seat will be about a million times better all around!

I'm 8 months out and I eat all those things. But I find that bread and rice, especially, aren't really worth it because they have way too many calories for the nutritional value they provide.

I would totally go for it. Why wait? That's a real question: Why would you wait? So you can eat a bunch of junky holiday food and gain 5 or 10 or more pounds that you'll have to lose after you have your surgery? (And since your weight loss will slow way down at the end, those extra 5-10 holiday pounds could well add a month or two or even more to the time it takes to get to your goal weight after surgery.) Is there something else you're worried about? I can understand wanting to have a nice Christmas, but honestly I think part of the reason we all got so fat was putting other people's needs (or what we think are their needs -- do they REALLY need us to devote 24/7 in December to doing Christmas stuff?) before our own. Can you scale down your holidays this year and make sure you get the support you need? I suspect that if you wait until January to have your surgery, you will look back and wish you'd gone ahead in December. And I can almost guarantee that if you go ahead with it at the earliest opportunity, you will have no regrets!!

I went looking around the internet for mortality rates for the VSG alone, and found one study that found NO deaths at all: http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Miller%20Kinsy.pdf?bgsu1230091360. I hope the .5% mortality rate you were quoted includes all bariatric surgery, and I certainly hope your facility does a large number of high-risk open procedures because honestly, I wouldn't go near a place with a rate like that for the VSG. My surgeon has been doing this for years and has had only one death.

I guess I'm another one who's not a success. I've lost an average of just under a pound a week since my surgery on March 17. So because I'm so unsuccessful, I've lost only 42 pounds in 7.5 months instead of the 60 I had to lose. I'm only a size 4-6 instead of a size 2. My BMI is 24 instead of 21. I'll probably have to wait until my one-year surgiversary to get to my goal of 115 pounds. Boo hoo hoo. It sucks to be so unsuccessful. NOT. I haven't approached this as a diet. I had this surgery so I could STOP dieting, and I couldn't be happier. I'm in no hurry. I think I look great now and I'm perfectly willing to take another few months to get to my ultimate goal. And I'm really, really glad I haven't driven myself crazy by thinking it's going too slow! And I'm SUPER glad I never came on this board before I even had my surgery, and started trying to tell other people they were "unsuccessful" because they weren't losing weight as fast as I thought they should! Sheesh!

Honestly, you couldn't pay me enough to get an RNY. I've heard to many stories about the pouch and the stoma (opening from the pouch to the intestines) stretching out. I'm a lightweight so I'm thrilled to death with my sleeve, but if I were bigger and felt like I needed malabsorption, I'd do the DS in a heartbeat. When your surgeion says "bypass," is he talking about the DS or the RNY?

For me it was the sleeve or nothing. I didn't have all that much weight to lose and I wasn't about to have my intestines messed with (and that's even before I knew about the dismal rate of regain for the RNY). i initially looked into the lapband, but once I found out about the sleeve, that was it. I had my surgery 7-1/2 months ago and it's been like a miracle for me. I only wish it had been available 20 years ago!