WASaBubbleButt

Actually doing that will probably make the cravings worse. Think of it as carb withdrawal. ;o)

Send her here and let us tell her allll about the band. ;o))))

Wowzer! That's a lot of calories when you are trying to lose weight. Remember, the 1-2 pounds a week is an average througout your entire weight loss journey. In the beginning you'll probably lose a lot faster than that, maybe 5 pounds a week. Then closer to goal maybe you'll only lose 1 pound every 3 weeks. So the 1-2 pounds is an AVERAGE throughout your weight loss journey. The higher your BMI the faster you will likely lose in the beginning. Don't depend on websites to tell you how many calories to consume, depend on your doctor.

Wow! That is extremely high. I'd find another doctor if it was me.

It is really really really normal! I think most of us go through that. When you start seeing the scale move you'll lose that feeling of regret. The first month is the hardest! You are on a post op diet, you don't feel well, you want real food... it's hard. It gets easier, just hang in there.

Aetna does cover WLS but not if it is specifically excluded. It is an additional premium and not part of major medical. So if someone has WLS benefits under Aetna, it would be covered if they meet the requirements. If someone's else's Aetna policy specifically excludes it, it will not be covered. IOW, not all Aetna policies cover the same things. Sadly, if it is excluded - it is excluded. If it is covered here are the requirements: Aetna Insurance - WLS Benefits - Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Surgery (VSG) Forum

One thing I finally learned is that habits are learned. I used to be a "flour" person. Anything with flour and if I ate what I was craving I craved even more of it. What if you try something for three weeks. It's hard but it really works. Dodge the cravings and when you have head hunger eat a veggie. Even if you don't like it eat it anyway. I know, it's hard. But amazingly, soon you learn to like it and you really do begin craving it. Before surgery the only veggies I ate were those on top of my burger. ;o) Today I honestly sincerely crave yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers, cauliflower, etc. I can graze all day if I want because of the types of foods I graze on. I do not gain and I get to graze and feed head hunger.

Here is something about MGB, a bit of history: Gastric bypass surgery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It's really quite dangerous. It is technically an easy procedure to do and any WLS surgeon can do it but there is good reason why 99.9% of them refuse to do it.

Nooooo, 10 minutes at best.

The only real advantage to doing this is that it will take awhile to drink your Protein shakes and if you just pour a little at a time the rest will stay cold. ;o) liquids will leave your stomach very quickly, it's not going to stay there like a solid protein.

Ohhhh, one other thing! Muscle Milk Light is verrrrry sweet tasting and you may not like it much after surgery. Just buy it in small quantities in case you have the ASS disease. AAAACCCKKKK Sweet Syndrome. ;o)))))

Ins does not usually cover MGB, it's quite dangerous. Only the slimebag surgeons even offer it. To have ins pay for MGB and then do a sleeve is called fraud. ;o) The ins co is going to catch on to that one and you will be paying the full price yourself. Some people are electing to have DS in a two part procedure and they go in for the first half, the sleeve, and then they just never go back for the 2nd half, the DS. That is fraud as well and ins co's are starting to crack down on this. There is a doctor in TX that just got into a world of trouble for doing this. The ins co took back all the money they paid out for DS when the sleeve was done. They approved DS and 100% of the time he only did a sleeve. What seems like a good idea is turning out to come back and bite some people in the butt.

That is exactly what it is like for me. It's only happened a couple of times in a year, once was pizza. Pizza Hut has these tiny personal pan pizzas and I ate part of one slice and it was too much or I ate too fast, not sure which. It was just like getting stuck with a band in the way you vomit, not like how it is with a whole stomach. I am pretty good at eye balling portion sizes but where I make a mistake is foods that expand in your stomach. You know how there are some foods that as you swallow and as you swallow saliva the food expands? That is where I mess up every now and again. Liquid can't get stuck. What might be happening is that you are still a newbie and you might be drinking a little too much or too fast. Your stomach isn't expanding yet to hold more than its size.

This has 11gms of carbs, that's not bad. You can't have it on clears but you can on full liquids. The reason I am pro-low carb on liquids is because you can be hungry in more ways than just ghrelin. If you consume a lot of carbs it causes blood sugar spikes and that cycle can cause hunger. If you don't consume any other carbs and drink three of these daily it's fine. But anymore carbs and it might make you feel hungry and that's a bad bad thing on the post op diet. If you get too hungry you might be more likely to cheat. But if you do three of these daily you get all your protein and 33gms of carbs daily. That's absolutely fine. Just avoid juices, smoothies, etc. while on full liquids. It makes it easier on you.

Thing is, it takes quite a bit of weight loss to shrink your liver. Low carb burns the glycogen that makes the liver hard to work with. Medifast... people don't usually like it but the doctors selling it and requiring people use that product do make a lot of money off the stuff. ;o) Different doctors vary in what they want. Some want under 20, others want under 30gms from what I have seen.

Yes, it is a good drug and it's tiny as well. A very small tablet.

For me it is not a matter of food tasting different, my tastes have changed. Things I didn't like before I like today and vice versa.

No, what I mean is that you won't need narcotics. You won't be in that kind of pain. I didn't take anything including Tylenol type products after the 2nd day. Some doctors have a morphine pump waiting in recovery for banded folks. That's not a reflection of the surgery type, that is a reflection of the surgeon. With a sleeve you'll need pain management for the first two days, maybe three. After that if you read on the boards most do not even take the pain meds people were sent home with. If you do have pain then you could probably get a liquid narcotic upon arriving home but I'll bet you don't need it. ;o) You might have reflux for a couple of months but it usually goes away. I don't know about the US doc but Dr. Aceves has you take Nexium mups for three months.

I made it a sticky. ;o)

But how is apple or grape juice low carb? That's why I do not understand liquid diets. Creamy Soups (flour), juice (sugar) ... what's the value? If it's carb and calorie intake I just don't see the value in liquids over solid foods. Seems to me patients would be more compliant if they weren't hungry.

I think everyone pushes their own surgeon if they had a positive experience. It's the nature of the beast. You have to admit, between bypass and sleeves you have had more than the average doctor for leaks. There are no rumors or misinformation, you are the one that provided the info. As I told you when you asked me to call you I explained that a friend of mine wanted to stay in the US for surgery and she was researching doctors. She asked you for your stats and while I fully respect your honesty, your leaks stats did come directly from you. I do not know if I still have a copy of that email or if I deleted it but going by memory I thought you wrote that you have 3 sleeve leaks and 7 bypass leaks? Less than 500 staple lines? I will see if I still have that email. If I do not I will get it from the person who emailed you. This is a site for patients to post and share experiences and tips, that's what we do. No medical instruction is given here unless it is, "Call your doctor." We exchange information, tips and tricks to weight loss and dieting, personal experiences, research data, etc. That's what message boards are designed to do. So I beg to differ with you, it is not unfortunate in the least. It's a form of support and sharing information and what is unfortunate is that you have a problem with this. I'm sure there are three hospitals bidding for your business. You told me on the phone that you only do about 100 WLS cases a year. Hospitals are hungry right now and they are doing everything they can to get business. Finally, I did call you as you requested and you suggested that I exercise instead of post. While it was quite rude of you to say that I'll have you know I do exercise, probably more than you do. I am also a normal BMI and doing quite well. You went on to say that I have no business telling people about the fact that you don't do routine leak tests. You said I had to be a surgeon before I could discuss that. I would remind you again that this is a message board where people do research, we exchange information on just about everything. I'm sorry you have a problem with that but it does not take a physician to write the words, "No routine leak tests."

You really don't need narcotics after 3 days. They do send you home with pain meds but not Vicodin, that would be way too much at that point. You can see your family doctor if something was wrong or if ... worse case scenario here... if you have a leak you can see any general surgeon. You wouldn't have to return to Mexico for anything unless you wanted to.

That's what I was thinking as well. If we can get enough studies and documentation out there maybe ins co's will be better about covering the sleeve. Thanks for posting this.

Excellent! Sounds like you are doing a great job on your diet. One thing I do not understand and I keep harping about it is why doctors use a liquid pre op diet. What's the value? If calories and carbs are in check what difference does it make if those calories and carbs come from liquids or solid foods? At one time I went on a hunt for studies to see if there was any science behind liquid diets being superior to solid food diets and I couldn't find a thing. Maybe someday someone will explain this to me. :tongue_smilie:

There is actually a great deal you can (and should) verify about any doctor. I do not know anything about your doctor but you can research a great deal about him. If you look at my sig link (I think it's there, I'll check after I post this!) there should be a link showing how to research a surgeon. It works for US or Mexican surgeons.