CowgirlJane

I think people who revise when they are very close to goal weight lose very slowly and are often disappointed. I had 100% EWL too and I know that is not typical for either virgin or revision sleevers who start at a 50+ BMI. However, I also know that revision people typically lose way more than 10# so that seems like a strange statement is all. Anyway, good info, thanks for sharing!!!

This is COMPLETELY NORMAL. There are a couple of things, one your nerves have probably not healed. Also, you are still eating soft type foods which just don't fill you as well. Finally, if you are not taking an acid inhibitor you should be because even very mild excess acid feels like hunger. I was told that for those first 6-8 weeks to almost not trust your hunger feelings or feeling of "satiety". I ate by the very detailed instructions as to quantity (measured everything) and frequency. Once you are fully healed and on solid food, eating dense Proteins and following the rules helps alot. It takes time also to learn to stop when no longer hungry instead of seeking out that "full" feeling. It seems like a foreign concept but over time it becomes just wonderful - I never have that "oh no, I ate too much feeling". I am 2.5 years post op and have lost over 160# with the sleeve - been in maintenance since Feb 2013.

Got measured for a bra today. The band's get stretched I guess cuz my 36C feel too loose around while the cup sorta makes a crease in the boobs. I measure a 36D or DD. ..hmmmm...Ross has discount bras so picking up a few. I didn't buy jeans but u got a cute "going out" top. All my girlfriends basically hate going out so I need to find a young at heart single friend to go shopping with. I told Steven I am ready to move on..it was hard but went really well. We are on the same page. not like I have found anyone. ...

Well then I have to disagree with the 10 pound lose for revisions. I started at 308 and am now weighing in the low 140s after revision to sleeve. Revision is any other op on the stomach after WLS. For sleevers, it could be RNY, DS, or a modification of the sleeve due to ulcers. Lynda

Coops rant away. Damn mean scale!!!

I had similar experience with the band more pain versus satisfied. I think it takes relearning with the sleeve. Eat till no longer hungry (this applies once you ate 6 plus weeks out before that eat according to surgeon guide). Over time you learn that full is too much and uncomfortable. So eating till no longer hungry keeps a good restriction feeling. I Am 2.5 Years From Revision AND Maintaining.

Thanks everyone for your replies and sharing your experiences. I still remember how it felt and in some ways how odd it was to not really like food in those early weeks and months. When I was transitioning to solids, I was almost a little worried... worried about over doing it, figuring out "what to eat" and all those experiences. I am nearly 2.5 years out so it is a little different experience than for those in the early months which is why I posted to the vets forum - although i know that due to the way this site is laid out it is so easy to reply to a topic and not realize you are in the wrong forum (I accidently posted in the men's forum not that long ago I realized after the fact haha). Anyway, i am interested in hearing from other vets since we mostly stress over managing hunger and keeping from regaining. I am curious if others have gone through this and if it seems like a sign of an actual problem or not. I think the recent focus on long term complications has me a little concerned. I lost about 8-10 pounds in just over 2 weeks which is unheard of for me this far out. My weight has stabilized and I am making myself eat, but I really have very little drive for food. So the problem isn't that I am too thin, although my jeans are all falling off me right now, the problem is I wonder if this is common or if it is a sign that I should be scoped/seen. If I am really feeling like nothing sounds good I sometimes drive 25 minutes to my favorite restaurant and have their shrimp skewer appetizer because for some reason, that generally sounds and tastes good to me. Most restaurant food is so heavy - it's just too much and makes me feel kinda icky.

Hang in there - and keep your eye on the prize. It is really hard right now, but it does eventually get better and the results are SO worth it! Instead of thinking about what you can't have, spend some time looking at inspiring before and after photos, go for pleasant walks, enjoy some other things in life and things like that.

I have heard stories of people experiencing alot of pain, but I did not. My pain was managed very well during those first 2-3 days and I hardly needed anything after that beyond the occiasional tylonol... a couple of the drain removals really "smarted" but pain drugs don't help with that kind of sharp pain anyway. I had a lower body lift, arm lift, breast lift and implants and a "small" thigh lift which just means that he got rid of the pocket of skin on my inner upper thigh and did not go all the way down the leg. I did all that at once and recovery took FOREVER - or so it seemed! It was had to be so restricted in activity and it was miserable feeling at times - although not painful. I really hated being cooped up. It took me much longer to return to "normal" than I expected. Based on talks to many others, I think that active, fit people actually have a higher standard for "normal" and may be more bothered by this than less active people - but that is just my theory. It was so worth it though, my appearance was completely transformed. Even people who didn't think I needed plastics (I was good enough) were floored and wowed by the transformation. I hope this helps and good luck!

So last night I was attempting to mow my lawn - complete fail as it was about 95 degrees (which is really hot after being so cool since last summer!) and my freaking equipment wasn't cooperating so I just had my horse grazing in my yard. And I drank two beers. I don't think it is a big deal to have a drink from time to time, but it bothered me a little that the reason I drank those beers is because I just fricking gave up. I need to talk to the counselor about this - I watch addiction stuff like mad as a year ago my coffee habit got insanely out of control. Anyway, I was wearing the very same jeans i was wearing when I met Steven. I remember them because he later told me how bad they were - considering i usually dress so hip and cool...haha. anyway, I noticed that my black undies were showing because the pants kept falling down and the undies are too big too as they are all bunched up over the top. I was quite a sight last night. It is so frustrating when things like basic lawn maintenance seem to allude me. I need to hire more help, I don't know why I can't just accept that. It is like a stubborness or something - I just feel like I ***should** be able to do it all. My counselor told me any thoughts that start with should are not my real desire so watch for them. I think she is right, but I know I ***should*** let go of old ways of thinking but it is very hard and maybe I am not completely committed to it. I do have skinny jeans that fit but i have dropped at least a size recently. It's weird and i keep thinking I will regain so I am hesitant to get too crazy and buy smaller clothes and then feel bad about it if they don't fit anymore. For me, clothing is more important than what the scale says. I am vain, and perhaps a little proud of that fact...haha... So, on the finding a partner topic. It was like a fundamental shift in my heart - like I really WANT to find a companion. I think I had unrealized mixed feelings before - like fear of letting someone in. I don't want someone to live with, not to be attached at the hip with - but someone to see a few times a week and to talk to maybe nearly every day. I am lonely and I miss that kind of "touch bases" person in my life. My friend Mary and I do that as she lost her main "touch bases" person recently when her mother died. I don't want to overuse that friendship though - know what I mean? Besides, I want more physical companionship. I want a lover that wants me as much as I want it. So, Steven and I spent a whole day together about 2 weeks ago. He loved it and told me that it was the best day we had together but he also is feeling overly ... committed I guess is the word... to our relationship. He doesn't want a girlfriend - same old story. I get it, he has been clear about it from the beginning. And honestly, he isn't really good long term potential ANYWAY. And, I didn't really love our day together, I appreciated his help with a problem I had, but his back is always killing him and it just isn't much fun anymore. More importantly to me is that he is slowing down. This guy is amazing at how fit, active, sexual and all those things but he is 66! We are sorta heading in the opposite directions on the physical front. He told me that he feels like he can't keep up with me. So, he didn't want to end it, and explicitly said that, but wanted more time away from me. I have been chewing on that and that whole day. My feelings toward him have been shifting over time. He is changing, I am changing, it is hard to explain, but I think much of what attracted me to him in the first place is sort of taking a backseat. That, combined with the fact that I am lonely and want someone who is more available. I like to talk over issues, feelings and all that and he claims he doesn't desire that - although it is interesting to me that he seems to love talking to me about his "stuff" in life. I think he loves talking to me and is a good listener to me too, BUT, he feels the weight and like he thinks he needs to fix my issues which just freaks him out - told me it makes him feel married. WTF? It isn't really a conflict, it is just time. It's past time to move on. so, now, how to find a guy! I will not do the online dating again. I don't know why, but I simply did not attract the right men and I have become jaded about the process. In hindsight, I think I attracted men who were interested in me physically but not much else and I don't know why. Rather than trying to figure it out, I am just going to try different avenues as I have heard this same story from many other women my age. I was advised by my counselor to ask men out since in the Seattle area women outnumber men and men are notorious for not actually pursuing women here. It is like some sort of cultural taboo or something. So, I have met a couple of guys that seemed pretty cool at some social events. I think I need to do a better job of flirting/expressing interest and then we will go from there. Okay, and now I need to say something controversial. For reasons I don't understand, most of the men who meet my criteria (fitness, have a job, good looking, close in age) AND actually seem interested in me are non white. This has been hard for me to sorta wrap my head around since I feel more comfortable dating caucasions. My personal theory is that any guy that is fit, cool, financially stable, my age and available AND white has his choice of 35 year olds and that is why I don't seem to get their interest. I have no idea if this is true, but my answer to that is to let go of my bias. I love people of color, I love diversity and have many friends and colleagues of all different backgrounds, but I guess I have only visualized relationships with other caucausions and that needs to change to broaden my choices.

I cut and pasted her original post and read later that she has an hour glass shaped stomach which is apparently a long term complication and can also be caused by overeating? At least that is what I thought I read. Someone from Dr Aceves office posted that they have been in contact with Susan over the years but she never mentioned issues until this post. Really she is very upset and I understand that but take it all with grains of salt. You can be sure I will be talking to my surgeon about long term complications soon though.

Deleted Susan's post as the thread IS still alive - it just went missing for awhile..haha

Thanks for sharing. When you say revision do you mean having the sleeve redone?

Swizz I have shared some of my challenges and my number one advice is to get your sleep under control. It you can do that at least you can begin to tackle the rest of the madness. Let me know if you want to talk more. Lack of sleep was at least half my problem. The other half seems to be a lifetime of numbed feelings showing up all at once. Denise why would revisions show up with problems 3-4 years later? I thought the risks were closer to the surgery. Why would Aceves have done it "wrong" versus many other revision docs? Do you think that revisions dont get a normal shaped sleeve? I lose massive hair all the time and I still have a ton...always been that way....but why would it be caused by fasting. Don't worry about the scale if your fitted non stretch clothes fit the same, you are fine. My pants keep falling down so I may need to go jeans shopping this weekend. I am thinking about buying a decent swimsuit too although I am not much of a swimmer as the water is too cold. Sarsar, wishing your hubs best of luck on the surgery and recovery. Florinda I assume you don't have regular internet right now....but thinking of you!

Susan posted about complications requiring her to revise to bypass which she can't get insurance to pay. She said complications were due to Dr Aceves technique and that her sleeve was done wrong but no details. Irene and someone else have same problem. He had a patient death and she said lied about the reason. Susan used to be a coordinator for him and got to know other coordinators which is how she found out some other Mexican surgeon is stapling but not removing excess stomach. Conclusion Mexican surgeons are lying and bad and you can't tell which ones to trust. Then there was a general dogpile on the evils of 2nd and 3rd world medical tourism and how stupid we are to have fallen for it and a general outrage that this site has ads for them. Problem I had with it was I never understood what the complications were actually caused by. Irene chimed in that she too would never recommend Mexico again but she wasn't sure if her issues were caused by an error. I don't know why the thread was deleted as Alex had been very supportive and expressed his disappointment in dr Aceves. He also said he paid for Susan's surgery which surprised me. Each post by Susan became angrier so I assume at some point it was too much...not to mention all the others that jumped in.

And...you know what. ..food just doesn't matter that much! I need it to maintain physical health. Some flavors and textures are more pleasing than others. ..but it really is not the center of the universe.

Not locked, I think he deleted it. Once again, I think it is a bit over the top to dogpile on the evils of Mexico, but I guess you guys know that I have a different view of all that. I liked Irene's response - she acknowledged it really wasnt clear if it was surgical error or just simply "long term" complications. And this guy has done ALOT of surgeries, should it be so astounding that there are a few complications. I think that is most instructive to actually discuss our long term risk factors and I wish we could have had a more intelligent discussion about that because many of us relative newbies are learning from the people further out. I wold like to have a clearer picture of my risk for these issues! My memory is terrible but i really thougth Aceves did smaller sleeves - at least back in the day. I recall this because I remember being worried that I had too big of a sleeve...haha... the things we stress over. I have decided I am going to see my surgeon sometimes this year even though i am officially graduated out of their program - although he made it very clear that I should stay in touch if I wanted to. I have a nagging worry about my recent unplanned/too good to be true weight loss. It is easy to blame it on my emotional issues... but really what comes first - a physical issue or an emotional one? Could they be related? I just have this niggling/nagging doubt I guess. I had given up on vitamins and all sorts of things but I am back on track now taking better care of myself so thought i should see him in a few months and get updated blood work etc. I am doing pretty well overall. I feel like I am understanding myself clearer. You know what - I am lonely. I have spent my whole life in the center of almost ***too much*** human activity and now I find myself fairly isolated due to a lot of factors. I got such a charge out of a few recent events at work where I am actually in front of people. I miss it. I am an extrovert apparently and I feel like a form of nourishment has been cut off. I miss being touched, talked to and interacted with at the level that I want. I think I have had the mindset that I need to be more "sorted out" before addressing these needs but I recently decided the hell with it. I make the analogy to my plastic surgery scars, in some areas they are basically fully healed and invisible but some spots are still red and even a bit of numbness/nerve endings. It can 2 years for those scars to heal and I am only 6 months out. That pretty well describes my emotional state - a work in progress. My counselor cheered when I told her "screw it, I am never gonna be at some sort of perfect state so I am gonna seek a companion NOW even though I at times feel like a bit of a mess. I don't need someone, but I am lonely at times and want someone to spend time with!". I figure as long as I am honest, it is up to the poor sucker I pick to decide if he can handle it or not...haha. The reason I have failed at dating is because I have held back - not really been that open to the possibilities. That has shifted inside and I feel it! Cathy, wish I was joining you on holiday. Have a fab time!!! So glad the house stuff is all sorted too. So, you know I like these British TV shows... weird, I know! Love "Call the Midwife" and sucked up the first 2 seasons on Netlfix recently! What a sweet show...

I don't take acid meds but I know that could happen to any of us. So, even about the lying. Let's be perfectly honest here, none of us really knows the situation. I think Mexican docs are less risk averse because they don't have the lawsuit thing hanging over their heads. The devil is in the details and we will likely never really know the whole situation. I am very sorry for Susan and Irene and I would be pissed as hell too - don't get me wrong - but I am still not convinced it makes him a bad surgeon who does things wrong. It's easy to dogpile on all Mexican docs but he has likely done thousands of these - certainly many people on this board - so it is unclear to me if his bad/complication rate is any worse than a center of excellence surgeon in the usa. I am not defending him, I am just saying it is pretty hard to know the whole story.

sarsar, I wish they would tell more specifically what he did "wrong". Am I remembering correctly that Aceves did really small sleeves? I know that is a risk factor for some of the things they mentioned, but I could not frankly tell what the actual error was based on the post. Here is the hard cold truth - people do have longer term complications from bariatric surgery. Aceves has done hundreds and hundreds of surgeries, i don't know that it means that he does them "wrong" - but rather that he is a high visibility, high volume, well known foreign doc. I remember a couple of years ago there was a rather vocal person on this site that had a leak after surgery at the practice I went to. According to her they were practically the devil... did everything wrong... lied to her, were incompetent etc etc. I cannot tell you how opposite my experience was so I take these rants with a grain of salt. If I have complications a year from now, i might suddenly hate my surgeon too.

I watch addiction transference like a hawk. Last summer I became aware that i was really really hopped up on coffee. Like coffee became something that made me feel good, killed appetite etc and I was drinking ALOT of it... it was all great until I started getting jangly nerves and all.

I reread more of the "discussion" and I think I get better where you are coming from. One thing i noticed when I was researching skin reduction/ plastics is that people who weren't happy with their selves were still unhappy after plastics. One lady I spoke with told me how she noticed all these OTHER flaws after her plastics and kept wanting to do more and more. It is sort of like never feeling like you are good enough - no matter. I agree strongly with the basic premise that the more we can love and accept ourselves - regardless of weight, skin, age or what-have-you, the more likely we are to find success and contentment in this journey. I intensely dislike the tendency that women have to compare themselves to others - I am not talking about on the boards, I mean IRL (in real life). Now that I am normal weight I find myself at times getting a compliment from other women that feels ... negative too. Like, they are comparing themselves to me and I don't like it at all. We each have our own path to follow and I sometimes feel like people make way to big of a deal how much I weigh or what size clothing I wear. I was just as good of a person when I wore a size 10, 14, 18 or 26W.... just yesterday somebody was grilling me on my clothing size - well I can easily wear a size 2 from a vanity sized place like White House Black Market but that doesn't make me a real size 2 - so I don't even like to talk about it it just seems like it is one more way women bludgen themselves with negativity about their bodies.

Gina, I don't think it is normal to experience those things. I only had a few incidents of vomiting EVER with the sleeve - when I ate too fast probably in the 3-6 months out window. If you still have sliming, vomiting etc I wonder if you should be checked for problems? Sorry to be a worrywort, but I guess that knowing that a few vets have experienced problems lately makes me think of that.

I am sorry you feel this way RJ! I honestly hadn't noticed the type of comments you are referring to, but maybe I am just dense as well. So, back in my early days, I read the old verticlesleevetalk forum, but posted on a different one as I felt this one was a little less gentle and my heart was too tender to take it. I hardly notice any of the negative now - I guess I just ignore it?

Well, I guess I am a little worry that you obsess over food. During the early months, this surgery practically makes you obsessive because you have to be so careful to eat properly why you are "getting the hang of it". I think it would be of real value to connect with a nutritionalist who understands your emotional issues over food so you can have a partner in working through it. I am also not sure that I agree that the only reason people get depressed post WLS is unrealistic expectations. I am pleased as punch, happy as can be - my expectations have been wildly exceeded... the part of my life that is the very best is how I look and the healthy improvements from losing all that weight. I still have down days though. I think what the real challenge is that we have old patterns - literally neuropathways in our brains - of how we deal with stuff. Okay, now remove the numbing feeling from over eating from the patterns and it can be disorienting while you figure out how to live well and improve those brain responses. This is not just about breaking a "habit". I actually have no desire to overeat and I stay active, stay social and do alot of things to "replace" the old ways, but it is still a work in progress. I no longer have a way to numb feelings and I guess this is how addiction transference might start. I am working with someone on this and working to retrain my unconscious responses and learning how to experience negative feelings in a different and healthy way since over eating is no longer a choice I have any desire to make.

http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/306043-think-twice-no-think-100-times-before-having-surgery-in-mexico/ I can post a link with a kindle! Edited: Okay, she went to Dr Aceves and sounds like she has the same problem that Irene (little miss Diva) does and she went to him too. I thought Aceves was known for small sleeves and frankly seemed like good results. Not sure who the other surgeon is she mentions. I need to re-read her post to figure out if the complication is really a small sleeve related or what. My surgeon was cautious about small sleeves with the theory that it could lead to problems later. It still scares me just a little... that down the road I too may need to revise to the bypass, the very procedure i didn't ever want. Anyway, what a huge freaking bummer.