Pookeyism

Hmmm...Okay, resisting all urges for some crass humor... I have lost 33 lbs., and I have noticed that my excess skin, er, holds more water. Our folds are very susceptible to capillary action, which is when water flows up vertical surfaces or seems to be draw along a surface. Our folds, especially when it is water form a tub or such (our folds are literally floating away from our bodies in the water) catch a lot of water, and that is what is probably happening to you. As long as it isn't discolored nor has any smells I would not be concerned. With my newly increasing folds I dry, and dry again with a towel I have "treated" in zinc oxide. It helps a lot. I have started to take a small bit of Boudreaux’s Butt Paste along the inside of my folds (sorry being blunt but am I mentioning anything we all don’t have? lol). It prevents heat rashes, etc. >>to treat a towel in zinc oxide, take an impermeable laundry bag or a cotton pillow case with a 900 thread count or so and out a plush towel and about a half cup of gold bond in the case, seal thoroughly. Run on medium heat for about 20 minutes. It saturates the towel and the medium heat fluffs the towel and allows for better saturation. Avoid eyes with this towel!

PS - if you get an error message along the way, if you can, plesae do a screen capture of the message and save it, if it is a repetitive issue I can forward it to the webmaster. screen capture instructions: open a microsoft office attachment, change the margins to narrow and the layout from portrait to landscape. control+print screen will capture the web page you have pulled up, including the error message. go back to the office doc and paste, save as, and file it.

I have sent out an invitation to everyone to join the skype sleevers group for now. As soon as you add yourself, should you choose to, go ahead and post whether you have a cam or not, if you have skype and how familiar with it you are. Maybe some of the more experienced Skypers can act as mentors to help those who are not as familiar. Again, my schedule clears up soon, and I can focus on this more. With the way the Holidays are falling in relation to my VGS date, after the 27th I will have much more time (I hope!).

That is consistent with surgery. How regular are you? Do you know of any cystic ovarian or uterine conditions? I would not worry, but if it were me I would confirm it not with my bariatric doctor, but with my gyno. Maybe an early follow up just to be sure. Ugh! You know I did not think about that! I was thinking I had 9 days after surgery before I was due again. I think I will stick to wearing a "just in case" liner for the first few weeks.

I doubt my visit was more than typical, and everyone is giving you good information, so I will just try to add to it. I made a voice recording of the appointment for future reference. I also made written notes, and followed up with an email in the form on "Just following up on what we disccussed". Which I used an outline style to go over the topics and how I understood them, rather than a lengthly reiteration of the meeting. Do some research about your healthcare plan, and what your healthcare offers pre-op and post op as far as covering needed equipment. Depending on what they cover and what you may need, you can begin to plan ahead for expenses that will definately not be covered. For instance, a friend has a bidet in her master bath, which made a friend of hers look into post op equipment and her health care would not cover it, but her doctor added it to a "prescription", so she is taking it off her taxes (so she says and is confirming with a CPA). Which goes to another thing:Keep all reciept for everything, ANYTHING. That chapstick, those slippers, that medicated soap, those bariatric supplements - and then take it to a CPA that has alot of expense helping people in your income bracket itemize medical expenses! Taxes...okay a little further from your question...record you driving to and from doctor's visits, mileage, reciept for gas, any parking you had to pay for, taxis or valet or toll, etc. If travleling outside the country, and plan to combine the vacation, maybe rethink that - you can count it off your taxes easier if you can demonstrate it was a trip with no opportunity to relate to leisure or vacation. You can deduct medical expenses but there are guidelines, and what may and may not fall into that will vary. the 12$ for hospital supplies - chapstick, slippers, etc - and that miscellaneous 10$ a month after that - if you are sleeved in June that is 70$+, and follow up visits and such for travel, at 3.00 gallon...it adds up, and you can get that back. You could pay a medical loan off at the end of the year. One very good thing came out of this. With my initial doctor, the bariatric coordinator gave me very bad, very incorrect information about something, and if I had not followed up with the email, I would not have any proof she gave me the wrong information. This situation even escalated recently when the doctor contacted me and asked me to go into detail about my conversations with her - I implied from our conversation) there has been more than one person who has said they were given wrong advise or information was omitted, and she denied it. This isn't as much work as it sounds. Use it to start a journal that you can keep track of your doctor, nitritionist, etc visits... TAKE PICTURES!!! Take them outside the office, take pictures shaking hands with the doctor, the nureses, etc. These people are helping you take a giant step. You will want to remember them. I regret not having pictures of the day of my first visit, of my nutritionist, etc. I will have them of the surgery! sorry for the novel...but I hope it helps.

Good question! I will be sleeved on the 4th, and wonder about this myself.

Glad to know you are OK!

Suggestion. Anyone who has the ability to cam or skype go ahead and add yourself to the "skype sleevers" group. Okay, back to Christmas, my "well trained" bunnies found the box with the left over wrapping paper...

DOn't let them treat you without an EKG and a chest xray - EKG eliminates heart problems, and hopefully chest xray will catch any emerging infections... ....BE REALLY CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH MORE THINGS THAN NECESSARY!!! You are post surgery and having a complication as it it...you do not need to contract MRSA or anything else. I would ask for a mask as soon as you walk in, and take you own antibacterial goo - on the way home, go buy some hibiclens from a pharmacy or walmart, and give yourself a basin bath wit about 1 oz to 2 quarts Water - hibiclens is chlorhexidine gluconate - avoid eyes, ears, etc. use it in diluted form. <<<ex Funderal Director and (now) somewhat germaphobe :/

I am going to be the wet blanket. Your numbers are all over the place, and that isn't good. One very basic problem with diabetes is that many doctors go for well enough, rather than really good, so once you are looking at it from a weight loss perspective it looks better than it is. Did your doctor take you off you high blood pressure meds? Did you check to see if you should go off cold turkey? My blood pressure has never been high, I have always been within normal range for all of the basics - bp, cholesterol, trig's...but I am also diabetic. I am not a doctor, but I can tell you my experiences since I was diagnosed with diabetes. I was told by doctors that 6.1 was ok (after 8.2 at time of diagnoses), and that 140 BG was ok for a diabetic. I lost down from almost a size 30 to a size 26, and there I stayed. I began to do research on BG and relation to your metabolic rate, healing, immunodeficiency problems, and how this affects weight loss and exercize. I tightened my belt on my readings, and the weight loss began again. But I had stalled. It took me two years to find the realtion between my readings and my weight. Doctors just aren't thorough enough to cover everything. I personally think they spend so much time looking after increasing workloads that they couldnt possibly be following up on the information that is coming out. First, you should aim for a 40 point spread throughout the day. 80-120, 90-130, 100-140 even is OK - studies are finding that your "daily high" can be 150 even, and if your point spread is in the 40 point range you are about 80% likely to have less complications than someone who goes as low as 70, but never past 140. or worse. I would start with a journal to keep you bg readings and when you ate logged in. test about 6 times a day, but alternate the times...2 hours before meal, two hours after, morning, evening, before scheduled exercize times, etc, if you test on the varying schedule, you get a really comprehensive view of your BG readings over the course of an average day over the course of about a week...and you will catch your repetitive highs and lows. Doctors give really inconsistent information from one doctor to another, so I did research from publishes positions, test results, etc. I interpreted what I could and took the others to my doctor to help me understand the data. I did not ask her opinion, only facts. I made my decisions from there. I got my BG down to the 80-120 range, with some days 90-130, with some occasional high mornings. My A1C is 5.2 to 5.4. your A1C is a average of BG within the body for about 90 days. So the higher you get with an average, the higher and more frequently your BG fluctuates. May I suggest you talk to your doctor and see in any of the newer medicines that are injected might be of benefit to you? Victoza had 3 different dose levels, and is a once daily injection, and doesnt have to be times with food - just take it at the same time each day, preferably when you wake for the day. The lowest dose might be enough to help control your levels for awhile. You are still healing, and you will or have begun to exercize, and you aren't out of range for complications yet. Diabetes affects your body's ability to heal, and can cause inflammation, etc. When I say heal, I don;t just mean the incision in your tummy, but your body's ability to cope with less food in a very permanent way, the bowel issues as you acclimate, your skins ability to recover, your immume system in general. I have not yet read it, but a friend of mine read a study that the more you BG fluctuates after wls, the more likely you are to develop gall stones or a blockage, pancreatitis, pleurisy, even empyema (you may need to google that one, people often mistake it for pneumonia). My background is medical to an extent, but I am not a nurse, doctor, nor do I even dress up as one on the weekend , but if you would like I can pull up some of the positions and articles I was referring to. I didn't men to imply that you couldn't go on doing pretty well at what you are now. I have found, however, a few points difference in levels, the "point spread" and a daily journal to keep an eye on it all was the difference of 30 lbs for me - I am still pre-sleeve, and I am still loosing.

Does anyone know her? Really wish we could follow up and make sure she is OK.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/publicASMBS/GuidelinesStatements/PositionStatement/ASMBS-SLEEVE-STATEMENT-2011_10_28.pdf There are so many replies to this thread, there is not enought time to go through them all. I wish there was. So while I am sure I risk the chance of a repeat thread, I do so knowing it is hard to go through all the posts, and easy to miss any given post. So if I repeat a thread(s), sorry! This paper goes into the most recent studies on comorbidity improvements, including diabeties. With that said, this is the formal statement from ASMBS on October 28, 2011, regarding their update on their position statement regarding the sleeve gasterectomy as a bariatric procedure. It is detailed, and interesting. If you do not follow the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, I encourage you to do so. The Vertical Sleeve Talk is an social network that is focused to the patient, but the medical institutions such as ASMBS make statements and positions that will affect the Metabolic and Bariatric studies (and therefore procedures, and related issues as whether or not they should be funded by insurance, etc.). If you speak to a doctor and they cannot refer to recent findings or position statements of these orgenizatons, it is a red flag to the quality of care you will recieve. It affects advocacy, understanding, implementation of new procedures, etc.

Awesome!!! We will get it up and running soon! I Anyone who wants or needs more support in the meantime, I think it is safe to assume that you can contact anyone one here for questions, opinions, feedback, or to air your worries and more! Merry Christmas!

Unbelieveable! Your tenacity is awesome! Keep it up, and keep us posted! I go in 1/4/2012.

I will see how I do with my goal for my surgery date, and jump into the Valentine's day challenge from there. Good luck everyone!

I am really glad to see people interested in this. I want us to not hide behind a PC while we need help. I have a very full plate (pun intended) for the next several days, but after the 27th I will have a lighter schedule. I will contact you all and we can go from there. Don't forget there will be MAD sales on and I am sure you can find a deal on a cam (:

Absolutely, I have a trainer also. Expensive but worth it - but I suggest you only use them about every third day, or three times a week. Do your core with your trainer, do your cardio on your own time!

Yes, lack of sleep and weigh or obesity and stalling when losing weight can be tied together: You can site the below link and it takes to others also, there are many clinical trials behind these articles. I am not vouching for every link on this page, of course, but there is alot of information there. Do not forget diabeties, early onset dimensia, increased chanses of inflammation, lack of focus, depression, and children that are not made to develop regular healthy sleep patterns are less likely to do well in school - that is not all, but dang! I's enough! Lol. http://www.healthtree.com/health-news/general-health/study-finds-sleep-deprivation-hinders-healthy-weight-loss/

"Am I this addicted to food that I crave it even through all this discomfort? Does this mean I'll never get my body, and my mind, healthy when it comes to food?" You may still need some serious work on your cravings - and if so that is not bad, because you are aware enough to ask - may I point out that you go on to mention how out of control you feel, and that you aren't normally like that - that could be a big factor. Comprehensive reviews of your habits will lead to overcoming them. That is true in anything, not just VGS. Hire a housekeeper stat. No kidding. Get someone in there and clean it thoroughly, get that off your mind. Lean heavily on your resources and reserves. Send the kids off to a relatives house, or have a friend take them for a little while each day. Get out of your house. Go watch a play or even just go sit in a meditation garden or art museum. Be shameless! Ask for the little courtesy hover-round and go zoom around the mall, lol. Confront your doctor and bring backup. A friend adept at being assertive can help formulate your thoughts and push to make your doctor responsive. If you cant or will not then correspond via email, so you will have a paper trail of what he says, and you can address his attitude with him when you feel it is appropriate to do so. I recommend reviewing almost everything within an email it can come in handy! Take a look at my profile info. If I didn't have an email I would have been in a she said type of thing with my first doctors bariatric co-ordinator. All the best to you!

Typos! My apologies!

I totally understand. Perhaos someone could recommed an inexpensive cam that is a super easy install. Skype isn't hard at all and the level needed is free. you do not have to be on cam to skype, btw.