mrchris

So I'm roughly 2 1/2 years out (surgery November 2012) and I've done quite well. Never quite hit my goal weight but damn close. This past year has been rough health wise for reasons outside of weight or weight loss. I've had some pretty severe arthritis in a couple of knuckles and my knees but generally avoided needing to take anything for it. A year ago February we did a Caribbean cruise and on the second to last day while in St. Marten I got bit by a mosquito. A couple days later and I had a severe fever, horrible bone/joint pain and was absolutely miserable. The suspect was a mosquito born illness either Dengue or Chikingunya. One of the things prescribed was Diclofenec. Within days my stomach was so irritated I couldn't keep anything down. Stopped that and started taking some Prilosec. Eventually things calmed down but wound up getting my sleeve dilated as I really couldn't eat much thankfully though no signs of an ulcer. However a few months ago I took some Aleve/Naproxen after a run. Within a couple hours it felt like I had a golf ball stuck in my gut and couldn't even get Water down. Wasn't like vomiting it back up, it would just sit there in my esophagus until there was enough Fluid from drinking or saliva until it overflowed back out my mouth. sleep was impossible that night as I would just choke on saliva every 30 minutes and drench the pillow in drool. After about 12 hours it calmed down and within a day or two things were back to normal. Well in June I was in a really bad car accident and have been battling severe headaches daily. Again I try not to take anything for them but this Saturday was really bad so I took two Excedrin hoping for some relief. Just that little bit of aspirin and it was a repeat of the Aleve. Same thing lasted roughly a day but then resolved without any real lingering effects. One it seems really odd that mild OTC drugs that never gave me an issue before could cause such a profound response now even after just one dose. And two it really limits the options when you do need something? Anyone else experience anything like this?

You can actually get fat from other areas of your body injected into your shaft to gain girth, it's pretty painful from what I have heard and only temporary before your body moves it elsewhere. Length comes strictly by changing the surroundings, it's not actually getting any longer, it's just the neighborhood got smaller.

Well I'll be 8 months out from surgery on Monday. Did another before/after pic. Weight loss is definitely slowing down but I'm quite close to my goal and perfectly content where I am. I wouldn't mind dropping a few more pounds and I'm still losing, just slowly (7 pounds in the last 7 weeks). Overall though I feel a million times better.... I've gone from a 3XT/4X shirt to a regular Large shirt and waist was as big as a 50 at one point but generally a 46/48 and now down to a 34. Absolutely ZERO regrets!

My doc keeps telling me not to weigh myself more than once a week for that very reason. We do fluctuate, time of day, time since last bowel movement, fullness or emptiness of bladder, etc. I mean if you drink 32 oz of fluids and weigh yourself before peeing, you'll be 2 lbs heavier. I wouldn't necessarily think it should fluctuate 8 or 10 pounds in a short period of time but 2 to 5 pounds isn't unreasonable.

Very weird for me... Being predominantly Irish I had always had an extremely high tolerance and could drink nearly anyone (except my 90lb Irish grandmother) under the table. That said i was a very infrequent drinker, and drank a lot less as I got older. Now it's a whole different ballgame. Only have had a couple drinks (7 months post op). Each time it was the same. Drunk and loopy nearly instantly and from very little. Over with nearly as fast. So instead of a long build, a nice mellow buzz for a while and a slow slide to sober. It's now drink a few sips, count to 10, totally buzzed in a very intense way, wait 5 minutes and it's over. Really quite different and not any fun. If we are out for Mexican food and my wife orders a Margarita, I'll sip a tiny bit but otherwise it's not worth it for me.

Gosh I didn't think it was that typical to be on a PPI 6 months out? My doc's normal routine is Prilosec for 4 weeks, I tried weaning off it then and the heartburn quickly came back, went 2 more weeks and tried again and had no issues at all. Never used anything since and haven't even remotely needed anything. I have heard of some people needing them long term but I didn't think it was very common?

Uhmm.... My doc said shave from nipples to knees. He left out the part about skipping the nether regions. Wife sent me in to get a men's brazillian wax. Couldn't have been smoother down there but unfortunately it was unnecessary. That said I think every guy should get waxed down there once just to be able to relate to what the women do.

Yes but.... With a little outpatient cosmetic surgery you can have the breasts of my your dreams. For us guys there really isn't any surgical options (that work). So for those of us who have had our luster restored we are fortunate yes, but I feel a lot worse for the poor bastards that are still tiny even after losing the surrounding area.

Way to go! It gets easier, especially once you get past any post op restrictions. I bbq'd some baby back ribs today. Stubbs has a bbq sauce that tastes pretty good and has very little sugar in it so the carbs are surprisingly low. I could only eat two little ribs (which really isn't that much) and a spoonful baked beans but it was enough to feel like I wasn't missing out on anything.

Surgery was 11/15/12, before pic was taken on 11/13/12 after losing 25lbs roughly on the Clear liquids. and the new pic was from this past Saturday 5/25/13 so roughly 6 months plus 10 days. I guess its safe to say their is a visible difference. Strangely at times I still feel like a have a long ways to go, but those around me are astounded at the progress.

I'm always surprised at the popularity of penis' (or is that "peni") Someone should start a before and after gallery of penis' and see what kind of reactions we get?

For some it's a big deal. For me, I was totally freaking out the morning of. They couldn't get an IV started (took 5 different people including the chief of anesthesia and they still took hours to get it going and hundreds of pokes with a needle). Apparently my initial wakeup in the recovery room didn't go so well. Something about being very agitated and throwing things around. They had to knock me back out. But when I woke up 8 hours later I actually didn't feel too bad at all. I had mine on a Thursday morning. Friday wasn't too bad, especially that afternoon when I got home. Just a little mild heartburn and the gas pain. Saturday was like nothing ever happened. Off the pain meds except some liquid tylenol. Sunday was a cakewalk and I worked a full 10 hour day that Monday. Some people have it even easier, some have it far worse. I think it's a combination of a few things, some of which no one wants to admit to. Surgeons skill plays a role, big role. Personal pain tolerance and not being a wuss (this is what no one wants to admit to). I personally hate needles and I am scared to death of them (as a 12 year old I got bucked off a horse and landed in a wasp nest, suffered hundreds of stings) but I have a very high pain tolerance. And lastly is just a little bit of luck. All else being equal there will be different results because of a million different factors from time of day to simple dumb luck.

It was the worst... The liquid diet after wasn't so terrible. But doing it while otherwise normally being able to eat and doing it out of sheer willpower was tough. Actually just the first few days are bad and then it's not that big a deal. Day 3 was far and away the worst of it. Horrible headache, terrible moodiness. A guy cut me off in a parking lot and I was in such a mood that I ripped him inside out for a solid 15 minutes, reduced him to tears. By day 5 I was fine, the rest wasn't so bad.

Awry??? Hell... anything starting off with a subject line of of "penis size" had no where to go but awry....

Eventually your body adjusts... But as my doc put it to me, liquid in, liquid out..... Pretty normal at this stage of the process.

I really over packed based on recommendations here. Most hospitals provide those slipper socks and robes. I brought some pajama pants to put on as soon as they would let me. Gas-X strips are the one MUST HAVE. One small box at a minimum. Phone and charger, a small laptop (like ulrabook or netbook) would be nice or an iPad/tablet. But honestly I brought all that and found that what I felt like doing could all be done from my phone and I slept far more than I expected to. Chapstick is good, the hospital was great about keeping liquids, Jello and such coming through faster than I could go through them. If you need or use a CPAP bring that and some distilled Water for it if needed. I brought some sugar free breath mints, not that they are probably well advised, but your mouth will get dry at times and dry mouths usually turn into stinky mouths. A book or magazine to read might be good to, but while I brought several I never touched a one. Everything I brought fit into my computer bag/backpack and even then I was well over equipped.

I totally understood what she meant, no misunderstanding here.... Bunch of peverts I have to say with a very slender and attractive wife who did love me regardless of my size, sex or loss of sex was never an issue. Things got a little more creative to make it work as my weight went up but it didn't slow things down. But now that my weight is close to normal she has alternated between totally into it, to totally uninterested. Thankfully, mostly into it though. I really think people underestimate how much weight and our own health plays into sex. Even with a totally supportive spouse just the mechanics of it, and our own inhibitions and thoughts affect it. One of the positive effects of this surgery that goes frequently unmentioned outside this forum.

This varies from doctor to doctor.. But the standard answer is "follow what your doc says". Mine was solid foods in week 7 post-op, meat in week 8 (including red meat). They suggested softer meats at first but to be honest I had more problems with things like hamburger and got the solid meats down easier. Certain semi-soft foods seem to get stuck at the start of the sleeve, while the more solid items pushed through. The NP said this was not uncommon, and a slight stricture at the opening to the stomach would cause this but that it would loosen up (which it did). 4 months for red meat seems like an awfully long time. Compared to many here the 8 weeks my doc states is even a bit on the long side. I know it's not something you want to jump right into as your stomach needs time to heal. But that's the first I have heard of anything that long... Were there any complications before during or after the surgery or was this a band to sleeve revision? Something that might suggest additional healing time is needed? Or is this his standard guidelines?

I can tell you like Houston mentioned, it does vary. But that said for myself, I was sleeved on a Thursday morning, home Friday. Went grocery shopping on Saturday all by myself and was off pain meds except tylenol at that point. Monday I worked a full day. My day job is as an IT consultant and I am a professional photographer (in a very fun field as far as photography goes ). As a consultant I'm at a desk most of the day but often driving between clients or standing, walking, crawling etc to get to things. No issues at all. The Thursday after my surgery (one week post-op) I did a full photoshoot on location with lights, stands, equipment, etc. No issues whatsoever. What my doc had told me is that if you have a very physical job (contractor, butcher, roofer, etc) wait two weeks. But for most of us we could return to work as soon as we felt like it and that even a couple days afterwards while we might have been uncomfortable working, we wouldn't hurt ourselves working. But for myself I found it a non-issue. I felt as well that Monday after surgery as I did a week before hand. No pain, no nausea, just took some Gas-X to control the last little bit of gas and that was it.

Similar to Laura, I'm just about 5 months out (surgery Nov 15). For the first few months I was never hungry, had to remember to eat, had to remember supplements as I was pretty uninterested in much. The last 2 months I've occasionally been just the slightest bit hungry. But unlike before where it was both a very physical and mental state, now it's more of a gentle nudge that it's been too long since the last meal. I've read that there are other parts of the body capable of producing grhelin and other things that suggest it isn't the sole arbiter of hunger. I imagine as part of the healing process the body goes through after having a major organ mostly amputated, the body probably puts a lot of effort into the healing process and hunger takes a back seat. That all said it seems to work to a large degree. Stay reasonably compliant to the diet, listen to your body without "over-listening" and you likely will not feel hunger the same way you did before.

I'm one of those strange ones in that I really have so much adjusted to the CPAP after 15 years of using it that now I've pretty much eliminated the sleep apnea (and had to have the machine adjusted multiple times) but my problem is I can't sleep without it. Kind of like Pavlov's dogs, I turn it on and I'm asleep in seconds, literally. Without it I will stare at the ceiling until morning. My wife is hoping I can get rid of it, not because of the noise (mine is nearly silent) but because it makes packing for travel so much easier. Maybe I'll eventually adjust to not having it but I can't imagine suffering through enough sleepless nights to make it happen.

It's been a common belief that caffeine will dehydrate you but recent research has shown that to be false except in very large quantities (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661) and as my regular PCP put it there is more water in the coffee or tea than the caffeine in it will expel. So it may not be quite as "hydrating" it isn't dehydrating. Now that said there may be other reasons to avoid caffeine such as hypertension and such, but dehydration really isn't a factor.

While many if not most of the people here might have unhealthy attachments to food, I still think it's more complex than just that. I would agree that if you are a food addict that eats to satisfy emotional needs then you will need to get help with those issues beyond just getting sleeved or anything else you might do. But as research progresses its becoming clear it's not cut and dry. 99% of Americans have an unhealthy relationship with their food. 99% of Americans consume more than they need to, and consume large quantities of carb heavy food. While obesity and diabetes are on the rise as a result, only about 30% to 35% of Americans are overweight and depending on the study between 5% and 10% are morbidly obese. That means 60%+ of Americans eat unhealthy quantities and types of foods because of emotional/binge/stress eating or eating for pleasure and all the other reasons people eat beyond basic sustenance yet remain at a normal weight. At the same time if you read the behind the scenes stories to programs like "The Biggest Loser" and see what they are doing to get those results, they are nearly un-achievable results in the real world. Yes being locked away from food and having it rationed out the way they do while forcing many hours a day of exercise will reduce weight, it doesn't generally work as fast or last as long as certain procedures like the sleeve. As you compare the sleeve and its efficacy to other surgeries that are restrictive only like the Lap-Band it outperforms them. If you put someone on the exact same diet a VSG patient gets they will lose weight but not generally as fast or efficiently as someone without the sleeve. Yes someone with serious food addictions to the wrong kinds of foods can "eat around" their sleeve and achieve limited to no results, it's still more complex than just labeling everyone a food addict because of their weight.

I've had the same primary care physician for 20+ years (rare in this day and age). I have an uncle who is a world renowned geneticist whose specialty is diabetes and obesity. I've managed to get the two of them in the same room on several occasions and the discussion and debate on this very issue is always evolving and ongoing. One of the things my PCP realized that kind of swayed him away from the "it's all diet and exercise" opinion was a lunch he had with one of the trainers for the Seattle Seahawks. As he pointed out there are 300+ pound NFL linemen that spend 5 to 8 hours a day in the gym 300 days a year. They eat relatively healthy and far less calories than the average Olympic swimmer. Yet they remain technically, morbidly obese. The diet and exercise argument wouldn't put them that large if entirely true. Yes some people have a very unhealthy relationship with food, it's one of many causes, but not the only cause. I think the reality is more of a blended issue. Many people fall into the category of not always eating the best, not always exercising optimally and having genetic issues and or a metabolism that is seriously dysfunctional. No one cause and no one solution outside more drastic measures like surgery. I was one of those people that didn't battle weight most of my life. I graduated high school at 145lbs at 6'1". I was teased for being too skinny. I graduated high school and started going to the gym daily while taking weight gain shakes. I was working as a grocery store meat cutter which was a very, very physically intensive job throwing around 200lb boxes of meat all day. We worked in shirt sleeves in a 35 degree room. I think that cold temperature and the calories we needed to stay warm is what messed me up. But it didn't help that I got myself from 145lbs to 250lbs in 2 years. It was all muscle and I was built like a professional gym rat. But 6 days a week in those work conditions played a role. Went to back to school, got a degree in technology and a desk job, wife and kids and went to the gym once a week instead of twice a day. Weight crept up, muscle disappeared and a few years later found myself getting sleeved and turning this around. But then I look at my wife. 5'10" 135 lbs, size 6. She has out eaten me every single day we've been married (20+ years) and is within 5lbs of the size she was when we got married. Never exercises ever, eats crap, candy etc. If it were all diet and exercise she'd be 500lbs.

it's unlikely to tear. Developing a leak is a possibility early on which is why there is generally such a rigid post-op diet. Risk of leaking decreasing rapidly though and by week 6 is pretty minimal and it's nearly unheard of past a couple months out. I can say with certainty by the 6-8-10 week mark you will be miserable, throw up and foam something fierce before you could eat enough to damage the suture line.