CowgirlJane

Kfree I am so sorry for your loss and it is a good reminder... Ok, it's well known I had multiple procedures at once. I don't take that lightly however. I wasn't sure how to reply because I want to be supportive,I had multiple procedures,but there is something uncomfortable for me in your description. I have no idea if my comments are on target but it is what I would mention to a friend to encourage her to seek more information. Let me start by saying none of the USA surgeons I consulted would do a 10hour surgery due to the risk of general anesthesia. My surgery was 9hours and was done with a twilight sedation combined with an epidural. The surgeon and his anesthesiologist specializes in this situation and had done hundreds of similar jumbo procedures before me. I was healthier and fitter than many. He has never lost anyone, never had someone go into ICU, but I still recognised it was a big deal to do so much at once. I had no lipo and I am concerned with how much you describe. I have talked to several people who had lots of lipo and it is very painful and does not always deliver results. Have you seen before and afters of patients who are similar to you that had all that lipo? I know very little about lipo but I thought the garments are key to lipo results so it worried me that he is doing so much but you expect to wear the garments only 2-4 weeks. I was required to wear garments for 6 weeks and then voluntarily wore stage 2 ones another 6-8 weeks on my tummy for my own comfort. Do you have realistic expectations of results-that comes from looking at similar people. Why not wait until you are at goal? You were sleeved less than a year ago. I am unclear if you plan to try to get to goal between now and Aug 20th but now is the time to be building up strength, having lots of Protein, preventing anemia etc. It really isn't the time to try to crash diet lose weight. Now I did lose a few pre op because I was a bundle of nerves....but I was getting lots of protein, wholesome foods and exercise. How many consults did you have? I had several and was shocked by the range of opinions and recommendations....very educational. Does your surgeon have great reviews on real self.com? I had a breast lift and augmentation. I was lucky that he was able to do it without the T scar...just the lollipop. 8 months out and breast scar is invisible. For me I wanted to see tons of breast pix for fear of looking artificial. I am pleased with my results. On the pain topic...I experienced very little. I had strong meds the first 3 days while I was in the clinic and after that Tylenol. However,ladies who had lipo hurt more. The recovery was long slow and difficult because of the severe restrictions on activity. I found that harder than expected. So I apologize if I offended and it could be that my concerns are way off base. All I know is what I learned going through my journey and the year I spent researching, doing consults and most insightful was the time on social media with fellow patients of my surgeon Dr Sauceda. I followed stories of perfect outcomes and a few complications. It's why I was hardcore about following Dr orders.....I wanted to do way more activity but that is strongly correlated with certain complications so I went stir crazy instead.

I have had several people tell me I look 20years younger. When I was morbidly obese I thought lack of wrinkles meant I looked young. What a joke. This is why I put out that painful before photo...don't tell me you look(ed) worse! It's ok I still remember what that felt like, I don't hate that woman you see. Dr Sauceda has an amazing setup. I felt very cared for. You stay in the clinic for 3 days then nearby hotel with daily nurse and surgeon visits for 8 days. Same nurse, Patty, everyday, who we all grew to love. I went with my dear friend who lives in Mexico, speaks some Spanish and LOVES caregiving but many go alone. It is hard to describe 1. how hard this was (not painful, just slow, limited activity recovery) And 2. How amazing and incredible the difference to appearance-no more shapewear!!! I would do it again but glad it's behind me!!!!

Oh forgot to mention...the clinic where the surgery and first 3days of recovery were physically adjoined a hospital. Confidence booster.

Ok, I will share a couple of opinions...and they are just that! I think Dr Sauceda, Dr Guitteriz and one other are the best of the Mexican surgeons I have seen on my years on these forums. The third I won't mention because while I have seen some amazing results I have heard some"iffy" stuff too. If it were me right now thinking of Mexico it would be down to these two. I have seen before and afters of at least 50 Dr Sauceda patients so of course I have a personal high level of confidence in him. Really....don't think you can go wrong with either but there are some differences. Dr Sauceda does alot of procedures at once. I wondered about safety but there are two important factors..#1 he has a partner with such similar techniques I can't tell who did what stitching up. #2 sedation is different. His anesthesiologist uses twilight sedation with an epidural. I was in surgery for 9 hours and woke up feeling great. Contrast that with every other surgery where I woke up sick. I also had very little pain...that epidural had some magic. I stayed in a clinic for 3 days with incredible nursing care. I was either the only patient or with one other (private rooms like a hospital) and at least two nurses on. A chef who catered our meals to us individually (high Protein low carb and tasty!). I adore the good doctor and his #1 nurse, Patty. Between the two, and their loving care, I hardly wanted to come home! I stayed at a nearby Hampton inn hotel for another 8 days with daily visits from Patty and the doctor. I have rarely felt so cared for in the USA medical system. In the end, the reason I went to dr Sauceda over a very good local surgeon was the care. I was frankly scared to go home right after surgery. I also wanted to do it all at once. USA surgeons would have staged me over 3 surgeries. I would go to dr Sauceda again and highly recommend, but I am so glad it's behind me now!!!

It seems better than gummies. In fact combined with one premier protein, some vit B complex drops (2 a week) and perhaps 1-2 calcium chews in a day it looks like a gr e at option for us pill haters. My lab panels came back great even with just gummies but i recognize that year 3 is when many deficiencies show up so trying to up my vitamin game without horrible pills.

I eat every meal as Protein first - tuna, salmon, all sorts of fish and seafood, turkey, beef, chicken, egg beaters.... even greek yogurt and cheese add some. I drink premier Proteins and find them palatable. Try adding zinc too for the hair issue.

This just seems like a decent variety of micronutrients. I also take a vit D - small pills I can handle those. this is the ecodrink stats. NUTRITION & INGREDIENTS Supplement Facts Serving Size: 1 Packet Serving\s Per Container: 30 Amount Per Serving Calories 0 % Daily Value Total Fat 0g 0% Sodium 0g 0% Total Carbs. 0g 0% Sugars 0g 0% Protein 0g 0% Vitamin A (as beta-carotene) 5000 IU 100% Vitamin C 60 mg 100% Vitamin D 400 IU 100% Vitamin E 30 IU 100% Vitamin K 60 mcg 75% Thiamin 0.75 mg 50% RIboflavin 0.85 mg 50% Niacin 5 mg 25% Vitamin B6 1 mg 50% Folic Acid 200 mcg 50% Vitamin B12 6 mcg 50% Biotin 300 mcg 100% Pantothenic Acid 5 mg 50% Calcium 300 mg 30% Phosphorus 100 mg 10% Magnesium 200 mg 50% Zinc 3 mg 20% Selenium 70 mcg 100% Manganese 1 mg 50% Chromium 100 mcg 83% Molybdenum 75 mcg 100% Potassium 400 mg 11% Decaffeinated Green Tea powder (leaf) 10 mg † Boron 1 mg † Açai Fruit Powder 500 mcg † Lycopene 300 mcg † Lutein (from marigold petals) 250 mcg † Zeaxanthin 100 mcg † Here is the analysis for premiere protein - I generally have one of these a day too; Back

Has not been a great week. My horse is lame and my mind is distracted and not myself. I have some stressful personal conversations coming up and I am sure that contributes. Would love to read some distractions about your lives!

The long vertical TT incision is called anchor cut or goes by other names. Gives a nice result with a big scar for women with lots of skin above belly button. I didn't get that. Usually what I heard is lower body lift is a combo of procedures which includes a tummy tuck and some version of a butt lift. I did not need liposuction and I heard that is a bit more to recover from. Bottom line I still think you are looking at 4 to 6 weeks recovery. What did your surgeon say? You are so thin and fit you will have amazing results. Dr Sauceda works on alot of women that are still overweight but gets great results with them too.. In some ways more dramatic.

Isn't that all lower body lift or is the butt lift something else? I had no trouble using the toilet starting day after surgery.

I am sorry you are in pain...I really wasn't. ..I don't understand but there are big differences in pain management. I am sure you will start feeling better soon. Hang in There.

Well, I posted a separate thread but I will repeat here because I remember as a preop loving these before and after threads! There is a typo in my collage - but my stats are: Sept 2011 lapband removal after 10 years Weight at start of 2 week preop diet: 308# size approx 26-28W or 3X December 11, 2011: Sleeve surgery 300# February 2013: Goal 158# size approx 8 or medium October 2013: Plastic surgery in Monterrey Mexico by Dr Sauceda 150# Procedures done: Lower body lift, breast lift/augmentation, arm lift, small thigh lift (ie groin only incision) Spent quite a bit of time in the mid 150s from Oct 2013 to March 2014 Current weight as of June 2014: 140 size approx 4 or small

Thank you - I want to share because I know it inspired me to see the results others had before me! I have a philosophy about picking surgeons that I developed as a result of the sleeve and applied to my plastics journey too. While we have a responsibility to advocate for ourselves, they are the experts. I decided to pick surgeons who have the results i want, have a great track record (safety and results), someone I can communicate with etc and let them make the detailed decisions. I feel like part of what i am paying for is their expertise and judgement. It is like bougie size for sleeve - at some point I had to "let it go" that my surgeon used a larger one than many I heard about and it worried me. He had his reasons and I am so glad I trusted as I have had great results and no complications with my sleeve. I had alot of concerns about implants because USA docs told me that the gummy ones wouldn't work well for me and that over the muscle was a bad idea. Well, that is what I got (and I did ask for Dr Sauceda's reasoning to help me understand) and the results are great. I can understand if others think this is bad as that is certainly what got pounded in my head by my USA consults. Same with the thigh lift, same with how the procedures should be staged. I listened to various opinions and arguments, and tried to understand the risk mitigations and then decided to trust... Plastics is a journey of trade offs and had I staged my work over 3 different surgeries I wouldn't be done till 2016 or later, would have had to figure out time off from work and help around my farm while I recover 3X instead of once, I might have gotten even better results (who knows), would have cost alot more, but I am so pleased with my results and it is just behind me now...whew. Pros and cons, plusses and minuses... we all need to decide what fits best for us. I had 6 weeks off from work, was cleared to start returning to normal physical stuff at 6 weeks (beyond walking and light exercise) and was cleared for everything by 8 weeks. Reality - it was more like 10-12 weeks before I felt up to vigorous or intense things but some of that was in my head because it felt weird as nerves came back to life (tingling). Recovery from the lower body lift is a big deal and I didn't have any complications.

When I fast I don't worry about hitting full protein targets but I eat very low carb on fasting days. I think as long as your weekly protein target is met you are fine. Body can only absorb so much per hour though so don't load up at once.

I don't track so don't know but stay active and exercise, add in maybe 100-200 a day and monitor your weight. I operate in a bounce range but my weight is pretty steady unless I eat salty food.

I am not a steady PPI user but DGL licorice is a natural acid tummy remedy.

I spent a year in hell agonizing over the sleeve decision. I was bigger than you - weight over 300, BMI over 50 - I know how bad you feel inside. All I can say to encourage you is that the sleeve is an amazing tool and you can get your weight under control and meet your goals. I do want to caution you on having too aggressive or low of a goal weight. I got down to 158 as my goal which was still overweight but I was so healthy and happy there! I maintained that for over 6 months before I decided to go a little smaller. I don't want you to get into that "all or nothing" thinking... you will feel so much better just getting under 250, under 200 etc.

So, the real issue is that it is my body and I don't criticize or comment on people eating really junky or drinking booze like a fish but they somehow feel free to comment on me eating healthy foods in healthy quantities. I can handle it, but I do wonder why people feel entitled to judge my eating when I am a normal weight/BMI/size (I am not underweight and I have very healthy labs - I eat healthy). It has been 6 weeks since I posted this and the person who I was eating with knows me better now and I have straightened him out and he now leaves me alone on this topic since it was becoming very annoying. He eats HUGE portions I have no idea why he doesn't weigh 400# but I would never say that..haha JerseyCityGal - are you stating or implying that I have an eating disorder because I don't particularly enjoy having my food intake monitored and commented on? It is interesting that neither my counselor, weight loss surgeon, nutritionalist or primary care physician share that opinion but I guess me ranting about getting grief over eating light is enough evidence for this diagnosis? Please accept my apologies if I have misunderstood your statement: "You're proving my point. To a person with an eating disorder, it's a hypersensitive boundary thing. To a normal person, it's called "small talk"." You're proving my point. To a person with an eating disorder, it's a hypersensitive boundary thing. To a normal person, it's called "small talk".

I think it is just excess skin.... can't be fixed by getting skinnier, only plastics or just getting over it fixes that problem.

Haha... turns out that eating less and exercising more does in fact cause weight loss. Wish it was that simple. I forgot to answer the scar question - sorry. Yes, I have scars but they are mostly hidden under the suit. My lower body lift scar is kinda peeking out from the swimsuit but it is fairly faded after 8 months so not too bad. I am lucky that as awful awful awful as my thighs were preplastics, the "small" lift got rid of the worst of it. If I had the long lift my thighs wouldn't touch (that is skin and deflated cellulite I really don't have much fat on my thighs anymore) but i am so grateful my scars don't show much. I wear sleeveless all the time and my best friend thought my arm scars were 100% gone till I showed them to her - they are just placed so well that they are only seen if I hold my arm up to show someone or do a princess wave type thing. My breast work was done with only the circle scar, not the t cut so you can't see them at all (even nude). Yeah, I was freaked about scars when I was preop but living with them has been no biggie and I am so glad i had plastics - really transformed my profile even in clothes. That is why i included the photo in the green shirt - no shapewear - you can really see the melted snowman look (I could hide effectively with shapewear though). The inner thigh extra skin showed through even in my jeans preplastics.

Thanks - and glad you could see the pictures. I already listed what I had done in the original post. I felt very secure, but you realize the doctor manages everything from the time you land till you leave. His private driver (or the doctor himself!) transports you etc. I took the hotel shuttle a few times to nearby locations, but never really ventured out that much anyway since I was recovering from major massive surgery! Again, I am a bold and experienced traveler and not afraid of Mexico anyway, but Medical Tourism is well organized and handles your comfort and safety really well. I would not drive there, but flying in and having locals who you trust keep you in the good parts of town etc is fine. In fact, what shocked me the most about Monterrey is how American/familiar it felt. It wasn't in the least like Tijuana or Cabo (or Baja Penninsula) or Cancun - the other Mexican places I have been.

Posted plastics before and after collage if you are interested... http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/311834-my-plastics-before-and-afters/ Okay, so I got a Private message this morning that basically said "I am preop but read that you said that eating small portions helps you keep restriction. What advice would you give for me to keep restriction?" I almost wrote back "eat small portions" but decided that sounded kind of patronizing so I threw in something about using smaller plates and utinsils or something. I guess when people are preop they are so overwhelmed but I found it a little humourous that somebody read and apparently understood my little tidbit of wisdom and yet asked me for advice. I feel like the deeper I am into this the less I know. I mean, I can barely even understand why I have gone through phases of alot of hunger and zero hunger so how the heck can I advise others?

Florinda don't know if you are willing to reach out... http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/311779-newly-diagnosed-multiple-sclerosis-sleever-are-there-any-others-i-need-your-advice/ Kim she is a beautiful woman. How is she today? I am not fasting and maintaining at 141 this morning. I keep expecting to find those 10#I accidentally lost. I kinda like my current weight so hope it sticks but my life was great 10#heavier too. So overly tired and alone after a lovely fun and social weekend is a setup for feeling like crap. Yesterday I felt it just a tiny bit...that empty feeling that is the precursor to anxiety. It was a beautiful day with so much to get done but instead I bought a size 4/27 pair of Levi shorts instead of the size8 that keep wanting to fall down, so it was a small thing I did to make myself feel better, like beingconsiderate of myself. Then I ate a healthy dinner even though I had zero appetite and went to bed early as I was exhausted. I feel good this morning. I hope I am learning to intervene in the cycle. Overwhelmed,tired and low blood sugar are the precursors to the bad feelings that start the anxiety cycle. Side note...those were the smallest shorts in the misses section at Ross. I marveled noting there was a time I probably couldn't fit into the biggest shorts in the whole store. I do alot of my shopping in the junior section now, but their shorts are too short.